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PRINCETON  THEOLOGICRL  SEMINARY 


BY    THE    HEIRS    OF    THE    LATE 


professor  Ibcnrg  Garrinaton  BlcjanDcr,  2).H).,  XX.2), 

BX  9178  .B37  L54  1859 
Barnes,  Albert,  1798-1870. 
Life  at  three-score 


-§tu  M  1 


v>^  <>■ 


A  SERMON 


DELIVERED  IN  THE  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  PHILADELPHIA, 
NOVEMBER  28,  1858. 


ALBEET   BAEITES. 


THIRD    EDITION. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
PARRY    &     MCMILLAN. 

1859. 


Collins,  Printer. 


An  apology  seems  to  be  necessary  for  publishing  a 
sermon  having  so  much  reference  to  my  own  life  and 
opinions  as  this  has.  It  is  easy  to  conceive  that  cir- 
cumstances may  exist  which  would  make  it  proper  for 
a  pastor  thus  to  allude  to  himself  in  preaching,  though 
they  might  not  justify  a  more  extended  publication 
than  that  which  is  necessarily  made  in  the  pulpit. 

The  following  discourse  was  preached,  without 
having  been  written,  on  a  rainy  day,  when  compara- 
tively few  persons  were  present.  Some  who  were 
present  have  expressed  a  desire  to  possess  it,  and 
some  who  were  absent  have  expressed  a  wish  to  know 
what  was  said  on  the  occasion.  It  has  accordingly 
been  written  out,  as  nearly  as  could  be  recollected,  in 
the  language  in  which  it  was  delivered,  though  some- 
what enlarged  in  the  process  of  committing  it  to 
paper.  It  contains  sentiments  which  I  regard  as 
important,  and  which  I  would  wish  to  commend  to 
those  who  are  entering  on  life ;  and,  if  it  has  nothing 
else  worth}^  of  attention,  it  has  one  feature  at  least 
which  I  w^ould  hope  may  be  useful.  It  will  show  that 
a  man  who  has  reached  an  age  at  which  he  can  hope 


for  little  from  the  world,  may  take  a  cheerful  and 
hopeful  view  of  life — a  view  which  may  do  something 
to  stimulate  those  who  are  about  to  engage  in  the 
struggles,  to  meet  the  temptations,  and  to  bear  the 
burdens  of  life ;  that  a  man  who  has  reached  the  last 
stage  of  his  journey  may  see  much  to  live  for  on 
earth — much  to  encourage  those  who  are  just  entering 
on  their  way.  At  the  risk,  therefore,  of  a  charge  of 
vanity  which  could  not,  I  confess,  be  very  easily  replied 
to,  but  with,  as  I  would  hope,  so  prevalent  a  desire  to 
do  good  as  to  justify  what  I  am  doing  even  with  this 
risk,  the  sermon  is  committed  to  the  press. 

Albert  Barnes. 

Philadelphia,  Dec.  31,  1858. 


^bkrfisniunt  k  i\t  Stctmb  €hiixm. 


I  HAD  no  expectation  that  a  second  edition  of  this 
sermon  would  be  demanded.  It  was  not  stereotyped^ 
and  I  anticij^ated  only  a  very  limited  sale,  and  sup- 
posed that  that  would  be  confined  mostly  to  my  own 
congregation.  It  is  equally  surprising  and  gratifying 
to  me  to  learn  from  the  publishers  that  it  has  received 
such  favour  as  to  justify  them  in  issuing  a  new  edition. 
The  discourse  was  designed  to  show  that  a  cheerful  view 
of  life  may  be  taken  by  a  man  who  has  come  near  to 
its  last  stage,  and  who  can  expect  little  more  from 
earth ;  that  such  a  man  may  feel  that  there  is  much 
that  is  worth  living  for,  even  when  he  has  a  prospect 
and  a  hope  of  a  better  life  than  this;  that  it  is  not 
necessary  that  one  who  is  growing  old  should  feel 
that  the  world  is  becoming  worse,  or  that  all  plans 
for  its  improvement  have  failed;  and  especially  that 
temperance,  industry,  and  religion  will  do  much  to  make 
life  prosperous,  and  old  age,  when  it  comes,  genial  and 


bright^ — will  lead  to  gi^ateful  reflections  on  the  past, 
and  to  a  haj^py  anticipation  of  the  closing  scene. 

From  the  demand  for  a  new  edition  of  the  discourse, 
I  infer  that  men  are  willing  to  take  these  views  of 
life,  and  to  welcome  such  words  from  one  who  has 
arrived  at  a  period  at  which  he  ought  to  be  qualified 
to  say  something  as  to  what  life  is.  I  send  forth  this 
new  edition,  therefore,  essentially  unaltered,  grateful 
for  the  manner  in  which  the  former  edition  has  been 
received,  and  as  furnishing  another  illustration  of  one 
of  the  main  points  in  the  sermon  itself, — that  the  world 
will  welcome  any  efforts  which  are  made  to  promote 
the  cause  of  truth  and  virtue. 

Albert  Barnes. 

Philadelphia,  Feb.  23,  1859. 


LIFE  AT  THREE-SCORE. 


0  God,  thou  hast  taught  me  from  my  youth:  and  hitherto 
have  i  declared  thy  wondrous  works.  now  also,  .... 
0  God,  FORSAKE  me  not  ;  until  I  have  showed  thy  strength 

UNTO  this  generation,    AND  THY   POWER   TO    EVERY  ONE  THAT  IS 

TO  COME. — Psalm  Ixxi.  17,  18. 

The  occasions  are  rare  on  which  it  is  proper 
for  a  minister  of  the  gospel  to  obtrude  himself, 
or  his  private  concerns,  on  the  attention  of  his 
people.  He  has,  indeed,  like  other  men,  his 
own  private  history — the  history  of  his  feelings 
and  opinions;  his  struggles  and  conflicts;  his 
successes  and  reverses ;  his  trials  and  comforts ; 
his  hopes  and  fears.  All  these  are  of  great  in- 
terest to  him,  but  in  themselves  they  are  of  no 
more  importance  than  the  same  things  as  they 
occur  in  other  men.  He  may  also  have  arduous 
labours  to  perform  in  his  profession,  but  so  have 
other  men  in  theirs ;  and  I  have  not  learned 
that  the  work  of  the  ministry  is  any  more  ar- 


8  Life  at  Tl tree-Score, 

duous,  or  more  beset  with  cares  and  trials,  than 
the  path  of  men  engaged  in  other  callings  of 
life.  Merchants,  farmers,  lawyers,  physicians, 
teachers,  have  their  own  history,  and  their  own 
struggles,  and  I  know  not  why  such  private 
matters  have  any  more  claim  to  public  atten- 
tion, or  to  public  sympathy,  when  they  occur 
in  the  lives  of  ministers  of  the  gospel,  than 
when  they  occur  in  the  lives  of  men  occupied 
in  other  professions. 

Influenced  by  considerations  such  as  these, 
I  have  never,  in  the  thirty-four  years  of  my 
ministry, — twenty-eight  of  w^hich  have  been 
spent  in  your  service, — regarded  my  own  work 
as  of  sufficient  public  interest  to  lead  me  to 
preach  a  sermon  on  the  anniversary  of  my 
ordination  or  installation,  nor  have  I  been  ac- 
customed to  allude  to  myself,  or  to  my  private 
feelings,  any  further  than  occasionally  to  illus- 
trate some  point  connected  with  the  work  of 
religion  in  the  soul.  This  I  have  supposed 
was  to  some  extent  allowable,  for  it  sometimes 
occurs  that  there  is  no  way  of  illustrating  the 
nature  of  religion,  or  of  describing  the  Chris- 


Life  at  Three-Score.  9 

tian  warfare,  better  than   that  which  is  de- 
scribed from  personal  experience. 

If  I  live  three  days  longer,  however,  I  shall 
have  reached  a  period  of  life  which  seems  to 
me  to  make  it  proper  to  depart  for  once  from 
the  rule  which  I  have  prescribed  for  my  con- 
duct; a  period  not  only  of  great  moment  to 
myself,  but  eminently  favourable  for  taking  a 
view  of  life  as  it  ajDpears  in  the  past,  and  in 
the  future.  A  man  who  has  reached  the  six- 
tieth year  of  his  life  ought  to  be  able  to  give 
some  views  of  living  which  will  be  worth  the 
attention  of  those  who  are  starting  on  the 
way;  he  ought  to  be  able  to  offer  some  counsel 
which  it  would  be  wise  and  safe  for  those  who 
are  young  to  follow;  he  ought  to  be  able  so  to 
speak  of  the  temptations  of  the  world  as  to 
show  how  they  may  be  avoided  or  overcome ; 
he  ought  to  be  able  to  say  something  which 
will  encourage  the  next  generation  in  the 
duties  of  life;  he  ought  to  be  able  to  utter  some- 
thing bright  and  hopeful  in  regard  to  the  pros- 
pects which  are  to  open  upon  the  world  which 
he  is  soon  to  leave — bright  and  hopeful  in  re- 


10  Life  at  Three-Score. 

gard  to  the  world  to  which  he  is  so  soon 
to  go. 

Any  young  man  has  a  right  to  ask  a  man  of 
sixty,  How  life  seems  to  him  now?  How  has 
the  reality  been  as  compared  with  the  antici- 
pation ?  How  does  the  world  appear  now,  as 
contrasted  with  the  vision  which  rose  before 
the  mind  of  the  boy  when  he  sat  by  his  father's 
fireside  and  formed  in  imagination  his  plans  for 
future  years ;  or  when  from  College  Halls  he 
looked  out  on  the  world  on  which  he  was  soon 
to  enter ;  or  when  he  left  the  place  where  he 
had  performed  the  duties  of  a  clerk  or  appren- 
tice to  go  out,  cheerful  or  sad,  to  make  his  way 
in  the  world?  Has  the  world  been  what  it 
promised?  Or  are  those  visions  all  illusory 
and  vain  ?  What  is  there,  as  seen  by  a  man 
of  sixty,  which  is  worth  living  for?  What 
should  be  sought  by  those  entering  on  the  jour- 
ney?    What  should  be  avoided? 

At  this  period  of  my  life,  therefore,  will  you 
permit  me  so  far  to  depart  from  my  usual 
course,  and  from  what  seems  to  me  to  be  usu- 
ally proper  in  this  place,  as  to  say  some  things 


Life  at   Three- Score.  11 

in  a  plain  way  of  myself,  as  to  what  I  have 
found  life  to  be,  and  how  it  seems  to  me  now  ? 

Mr.  Hume,  in  his  well-written  autobiography, 
says,  "  It  is  difficult  for  a  man  to  speak  long 
of  himself  without  vanity ;  therefore,"  says  he, 
"  I  shall  be  short."  I  am  sensible  of  this  dan- 
ger, and  I  will  endeavor  not  to  expose  myself 
to  this  charge.     If  I  do,  it  shall  be  hut  once. 

What  then  have  I  found  life  to  be  ?  How 
does  it  seem  to  me  now  ? 

The  FIRST  thing  which  I  have  to  say  is,  that 
I  have  found  it  to  be  all,  and  more  than  all, 
that  I  had  hoped ;  all,  and  more  than  all,  that 
it  promised.  In  other  words,  I  have  now  a 
higher  idea  of  life  as  such — of  the  desirableness 
of  living — than  I  had  at  the  outset.  It  seems 
to  me  to  be  a  greater  matter  by  far  to  live,  and 
to  carry  out  the  real  purposes  of  life,  than  it 
did  when  I  began  my  course. 

I  mean  by  this,  that  there  is  more  that  enters 
into  the  idea  of  living — of  living  in  this  icorlcl. 
It  is  a  greater  matter.  It  is  a  more  desirable 
thino;.     There  are  more  thinsrs  to  be  accom- 


12  lAfe  at  Three-Score. 

plished ;  more  to  interest  the  mind,  to  win  the 
heart;  to  impart  happiness ;  more  to  make  it  a 
serious  matter  to  leave  the  world  at  all — to  leave 
it  with  no  prospect  of  returning  to  it  again. 

I  know  that  this  is  contrary  to  the  impres- 
sion which  is  commonly  entertained  in  regard 
to  the  feelings  of  a  man  as  he  approaches  the 
period  when,  in  the  ordinary  course  of  things, 
he  must  expect  soon  to  die.  The  impression 
of  the  young  commonly  is,  that  when  a  man 
approaches  the  end  of  life,  the  objects  which 
may  have  been  so  interesting  to  him  at  first 
must  cease  to  interest  him;  that,  as  he  has 
secured  all  the  honour  which  he  can  hope  to 
obtain,  and  gained  all  the  wealth  which  he  can 
hope  to  acquu'e,  and  tasted  all  the  pleasures 
which  he  can  hope  to  enjoy,  life  can  have  little 
to  attract  him  then,  or,  in  other  words,  that 
he  can  see  little  then  which  would  be  worth 
living  for. 

That  this  may  occur,  I  cannot  doubt ;  but  it 
is  not  so  with  me,  and  this  is  not  the  view  which 
I  now  take  of  living  in  this  world.  Life,  as 
such,  has  now  more  to  interest  me  than  it  has 


Life  at  Tliree-Score.  13 

had  at  any  former  period ;  more  than  it  had 
when  I  looked  out  upon  it  in  the  bright  visions 
of  youth,  or  than  it  has  had  at  any  stage  of  my 
progress  through  the  world.  There  is  more  to 
learn;  more  to  do;  more  in  the  world  than 
I  supposed ;  more  to  make  it  a  matter  of  regret 
that  it  must  be  left. 

I  do  not  refer  here  to  the  things  which  oc- 
cupy the  attention  of  so  large  a  portion  of 
mankind,  and  which  constitute,  in  their  appre- 
hension, all  that  there  is  in  living;  the  desire 
of  wealth,  fame,  pleasure.  Of  the  first  of  these, 
as  a  motive  for  living,  I  have  never  been,  to 
my  recollection,  conscious  at  any  time,  nor  am 
I  conscious  of  it  now.  The  second  of  these  I 
confess  I  have  indulged  to  a  degree  which  I 
cannot  now  justify,  and  I  cannot  but  feel  that 
I  may  have  been  influenced  by  it  even  when  I 
have  supposed  that  I  was  acting  from  higher 
motives;  but  I  have  aimed  to  subdue  it,  and  to 
keep  it  subordinate  to  a  higher  end,  the  desire 
to  honour  God.  The  third  of  these,  whatever  I 
may  have  felt  in  my  earlier  days,  in  common 
with  others  as  they  enter  on  life,  I  trust  ha^ 


14  Life  at  Threescore. 

been  subdued  by  the  grace  of  God,  by  advanc- 
ing years,  and  by  the  growth  of  higher  princi- 
ples of  action.  When,  therefore,  I  spoke  of  the 
world  as  more  desirable  to  live  in  than  it 
seemed  to  me  at  the  beginning,  I  mean  the 
world  as  such — as  a  part  of  the  universe  of 
God — as  a  place  where  He  is  developing  his 
great  plans ;  and  when  I  speak  of  life  as  seem- 
ing more  desirable  to  me  now  than  ever  before, 
I  refer  to  it  in  reference  to  the  great  objects 
for  which  it  was  given,  and  to  what  may  be 
done  in  securing  those  objects. 

I  will  specify  a  few  things  as  illustrating 
this  idea : — 

This  is  a  different  world  from  what  it  was 
sixty  years  ago.  The  universe,  if  I  may  so 
express  it,  is  larger  than  it  was  then ;  the  earth 
is  more  ancient  and  more  grand.  It  is  true, 
indeed,  that  to  the  eye  of  an  Omniscient  Being 
the  universe  is  the  same ;  but  it  is  more  vast 
and  grand  as  it  appears  to  man.  Every  sixty 
years  of  the  earth's  history,  except  perhaps  the 
period  of  the  dark  ages,  has  made  the  world 
different;  but  no  period  of  sixty  years  has  made 


Life  at   Tlireo Score.  15 

so  great  a  change  as  that  to  which  I  now  refer. 
The  universe  to  human  view  is  inconceivably 
more  extended.  There  is  not  a  science  whose 
boundaries  have  not  been  greatly  enlarged. 
Many  of  the  most  important  discoveries  in 
science,  and  inventions  in  the  arts^  which  are 
to  be  developed  in  their  influence  on  following 
ages,  have  started  into  being  in  groups  and 
clusters.  Worlds  and  systems  have  been 
brought  into  view  unknown  to  man  before. 

The  universe  above  is  greater.  During  all 
that  period,  the  astronomer  has  been  pointing 
his  telescope  to  the  heavens,  and  penetrating 
the  fields  of  blue  ether,  and  revealing  to  man 
the  wonders  of  the  distant  heavens;  enlarging 
the  universe  by  all  those  measureless  distances 
through  which  the  eye  has  been  made  to  pene- 
trate. New  stars  have  been  discovered  and 
mapped  on  the  great  chart  of  the  heavens ;  a 
new  planet  as  belonging  to  our  system  has  been 
found  from  the  fiict  of  its  disturbing  influence 
on  those  before  known — a  planet  on  which  no 
human  eye  ever  before  rested ;  a  vast  number 
of  asteroids,  fragments  of  a  larger  planet,  have 


16  Life  at  Three-S(xjre. 

been  seen  to  revolve  between  the  orbit  of  Mars 
and  Jupiter  j  and  distant  nebulae,  floating 
islands  in  the  measureless  distance,  have  been 
brought  into  view,  and  resolved  into  distinct 
and  separate  worlds. 

The  world  heneatli  is  greater  and  more  won- 
derful than  it  was.  The  microscope  was  indeed 
known,  as  was  the  telescope,  sixty  years  ago ; 
but  it  had  but  just  begun  to  reveal  the  world 
beneath  us.  It  has  not  finished  its  work,  but 
it  has  already  disclosed  a  universe  beneath  us 
as  unlimited  and  as  wonderful  as  that  above  us. 
It  has  peopled  every  leaf  in  the  forest,  and 
every  drop  of  water  in  rivulets,  lakes,  and 
oceans,  with  teeming  multitudes  of  inhabitants, 
amazing  us  as  much  by  their  number,  and  by 
the  delicacy,  skill,  and  beauty  of  their  organi- 
zation, as  the  telescope  does  by  the  number 
and  the  magnitudes  of  the  worlds  above  us. 
We  find  ourselves  as  men  standing  thus  in  a 
universe  extending  inimitably  above  and  below 
us,  as  incomprehensible  on  the  one  hand  as  on 
the  other :  boundless  space  above  filled  up  with 
w^orlds  where  we  thought  there  w\as  an  empty 


Life  at   TlivcC' Score.  17 

void,  and  beneath  countless  myriads  of  beings 
starting  into  life,  and  playing  their  little  part, 
where  all  seemed  to  be  blank. 

Our  own  earth  is  vaster  and  more  grand 
than  it  was.  Half  a  century  ago,  the  prevail- 
ing— the  almost  universal — belief  was,  that 
the  earth  was  created  six  thousand  years  ago, 
in  its  essential  structure  as  it  is  now — rocks, 
and  seas,  and  rivers,  and  hills  having  been 
called  into  existence  as  they  now  are,  by  the 
immediate  command  of  God.  It  began,  in- 
deed, to  be  whispered  that  it  is  older,  and  that 
important  changes  had  occurred  upon  the  earth 
before  man  appeared  on  it ;  or  that  the  earth 
had  a  history  before  the  history  of  the  human 
race.  I  remember  in  one  of  the  earliest  stages 
of  my  education,  meeting  with  a  remark  by 
Dr.  Chalmers,  designed  to  solve  some  of  the 
growing  difficulties  from  the  new  science  of 
geology,  that  between  the  first  and  second 
verses  of  the  Book  of  Genesis  there  might  be 
supposed  to  have  intervened  an  indefinite 
period  of  which  no  account  was  given,  the  pur- 
pose of  inspiration  having  been  first  to  attest 


18  Life  at   Three- Score. 

the  general  truth  that  "GbcZ  created  the  heavens 
and  the  earth,''  or  to  secure  this  belief  in  the 
minds  of  men  in  opposition  to  the  idea  that  the 
world  is  eternal^  or  is  the  work  of  fate  or 
chance,  and  then,  without  detailing  the  inter- 
mediate history  of  the  globe,  to  proceed  at  once 
to  the  main  purpose  of  the  volume,  the  history 
of  the  Creation,  the  Fall  and  the  Eedemption 
of  man  ;  that  in  fact  the  earth  itself  may  have 
existed  through  a  vast  number  of  ages,  and 
may  have  gone  through  a  vast  number  of  revo- 
lutions, with  which  man  in  his  history  was  not 
particularly  concerned,  or  which  did  not  bear 
on  the  main  purpose  of  the  volume — the  record 
of  the  Fall  and  Kecovery  of  a  lost  race.  What 
was  then  almost  conjecture  in  regard  to  the 
past  history  of  the  earth,  has  been  verified. 
The  prevailing  opinions  respecting  its  recent 
origin  have  been  set  aside.  To  all  that  was 
before  regarded  as  grand  in  the  conception  of 
the  earth,  there  is  now  added  the  truth  that  it 
has  moved  on  its  axis  and  in  its  orbit  millions 
of  ages ;  that  successive  generations  of  animals 
have  been  formed,  and  have  acted  out  the  pur- 


Life  at  Three-Seore,  19 

pose  of  their  creation^  and  liave  disappeared 
forever;  that  vast  changes  have  occurred  in 
the  waters  and  on  the  land,  displacing  each 
other,  and  then  peopled  again  with  new 
myriads  of  inhabitants  appropriate  to  each, 
and  then  again  to  pass  away;  that  immense 
deposits  of  minerals  had  been  made  by  the 
slow  progress  of  ages,  fitted  for  the  use  of  an 
order  of  beings  that  had  not  yet  appeared; 
and  that  at  last  man,  to  whom  all  these 
changes  had  reference,  and  for  whom  all  the 
previous  arrangements  were  designed,  appeared 
upon  the  earth,  a  being  of  higher  order — the 
last  in  the  series  that  Avas  to  occupy  the  globe. 
With  this  view  of  the  past,  what  a  different 
object  is  the  earth  now  from  what  it  was  half 
a  century  ago! 

A  large  part  of  the  discoveries  in  science, 
the  inventions  in  the  arts,  and  the  arrange- 
ments in  the  schemes  of  benevolence  that  are 
to  affect  future  times,  and  whose  bearings  can 
now  be  scarcely  appreciated,  has  been  ori- 
ginated also  in  this  period  of  the  world.  The 
power  of  steam  was  not  indeed  unknown  be- 


20  Life  at  Three-Score, 

fore ;  but  the  great  changes  which  it  is  des- 
tined to  produce  in  the  commerce  of  the  world 
are  the  results  of  the  inventions  of  this  age. 
The  raih^oad  and  the  magnetic  telegraph  have 
been  originated  in  these  times.  Every  science 
has  been  pushed  forward.  Elementary  books 
of  instruction  have  been  changed,  and  those 
which  were  adapted  to  the  condition  of  the 
w^orld  sixty  years  ago  would  be  useless  now. 
If  I  were  now  to  begin  my  education  again,  a 
large  part  of  the  books  which  I  studied  when 
young,  would  be  valueless.  I  should,  indeed, 
retain  my  Homer,  my  Yirgil,  and  my  Euclid ; 
but  the  books  in  which  I  sought  instruction  in 
chemistry,  and  geography,  and  natural  philo- 
sophy, would  no  longer  represent  the  science 
of  the  world,  or  convey  correct  views  to  my 
mind.  The  books  w^hich  I  then  studied  belong 
to  another  age,  and  though  they  will  serve  to 
mark  the  steps  by  which  the  advances  of 
science  have  been  made,  they  will  never  again 
be  a  proper  exponent  of  the  true  state  of  know- 
ledge among  mankind.  I  see  wonders  around 
me  which  have  sprung  up  anew.     Every  river, 


Life  at   Tliree-Scoi^e.  21 

lakeland  ocean  is  navigated  by  steam;  an  iron 
road  is  laid  down  everywhere,  connecting  all 
parts  of  a  country  together,  along  which  are 
borne,  by  a  power  unapplied  when  I  was  young, 
the  productions  of  agriculture,  manufactures, 
and  the  arts,  with  a  rapidity  and  a  precision 
of  which  no  one  then  could  have  formed  a  con- 
ception. A  mysterious  and  incomprehensible 
network,  like  spiders'  w^ebs,  is  weaving  itself 
over  all  lands,  and  making  its  way  beneath 
deep  waters,  by  which  thought  is  transmitted 
simultaneously  to  millions  of  minds,  and  is  dif- 
fused over  distant  lands  regardless  of  mountains 
and  of  oceans.  How  different  such  a  world 
from  what  it  was  sixty  years  ago ! 

In  the  same  time  there  have  sprung  also  into 
being  arrangements,  then  unknown,  no  less 
adapted  to  affect  the  moral  and  rehgious  con- 
dition of  mankind.  The  great  enterprises  of 
Christian  benevolence,  yet  to  result  in  the  en- 
tire conversion  of  the  w^orld  to  God,  have  been 
originated  in  that  time.  The  Bible  w^as  indeed 
in  men's  hands,  and  the  gospel  was  preached, 
and  the  power  of  the  press  was  known,  but  the 


22  Life  at   Threescore, 

serious  thought  had  scarcely  found  its  way  into 
the  minds  of  the  friends  of  the  Saviour  of 
bringing  the  combined  influence  of  these  agen- 
cies on  the  widest  scale  possible  to  bear  on  the 
unconverted  portions  of  the  race.  Within  the 
period  of  which  I  am  now  speaking,  this 
thought  has  taken  a  firm  possession  of  the 
Christian  mind  and  heart,  and  the  great  work 
of  the  world's  conversion  has  been  entered  on 
in  earnest.  The  Bible  has  been  translated 
into  nearly  all  the  languages  of  the  world; 
the  strongholds  of  the  earth  have  been  occu- 
pied as  missionary  stations  3  millions  of  children 
are  taught  the  great  truths  of  Christianity  from 
week  to  week  in  Sabbath-schools;  and  a  Chris- 
tian literature  is  spreading  its  influence  far 
and  near  over  nominally  Christian  and  Pagan 
lands.  Whatever  there  is  of  power  in  these 
arrangements  as  bearing  on  the  future,  is  the 
fruit  of  the  spirit  of  this  age ;  and  now,  in  refer- 
ence to  science,  to  the  arts,  to  the  efforts  of 
benevolence — to  the  world  above,  the  world 
below,  the  world  in  the  past,  and  the  world 


Life  at  Three- Score.  23 

around  us,  I  see  a  different — a  larger — world 
than  it  was  when  I  began  to  live. 

I  augur  much  from  this ;  I  hope  much  in 
reference  to  the  future.  I  see  that  the  next 
age  is  likely  to  be  more  fruitful  of  great  results 
than  even  this  has  been;  that  it  will  be  an  age 
in  which  it  will  be  more  desirable  to  live  than 
this  has  been.  I  look  now  on  the  beginning 
of  things;  on  the  commencement  of  develop- 
ments which  are  to  be  far  more  grand  and 
glorious  than  any  which  we  have  seen.  John 
Kobinson,  the  pastor  of  the  Pilgrim  Church  at 
Ley  den,  in  his  fiirewell  discourse  to  the  depart- 
ing pilgrims,  "•  charged  them  before  God  and 
his  blessed  angels  to  follow  him  no  further  than 
he  had  followed  Christ;  and  if  God  should 
reveal  any  thing  to  them  by  any  other  instru- 
ment of  his,  to  be  as  ready  to  receive  it  as  ever 
they  were  to  receive  any  truth  by  his  ministry; 
for  lie  looM  very  confident  the  Lord  had  more 
truth  and  light  yet  to  hreah  forth  out  of  Ms  Holy 
WbrdJ"^'  The  Bible,  in  his  apprehension,  was 
not  exhausted.     All  its  truths  were  not  made 

*  Cheever's  Journal  of  the  Pilgrims,  p.  1G5. 


24  Life  at  Three- Score, 

known,  and  there  was  much  in  reserve  for 
future  times.  So  I  look  on  the  world  now. 
The  i^owers  of  nature  are  not  exhausted.  Her 
secrets  are  not  yet  all  explored.  The  improve- 
ments in  the  art  of  printing ;  the  applications 
of  steam  to  commerce  and  the  arts ;  the  dis- 
closures by  the  telescope,  the  microscope,  and 
the  blow-pipe ;  the  application  of  light  in  fixing 
the  forms  of  things,  and  of  the  magnetic  fluid 
in  the  transmission  of  thought,  have  not  ex- 
hausted the  secrets  of  nature.  They  have 
opened  to  us  a  world  of  wonders,  and  taught 
us  to  anticipate  still  greater  inventions  and  dis- 
coveries, and  not  to  be  surprised  at  any  thing 
which  may  seem  now  to  surpass  the  compre- 
hension of  the  human  mind.  We  have  but 
just  begun  to  wonder  at  nature — to  feel  that 
we  know  but  little  about  it — that  its  disclosures 
are  but  just  commenced.  I  look  forward  then 
to  greater  wonders  in  the  future,  and  as  I  leave 
the  world  I  shall  see  opening  upon  rt  new  inven- 
tions, discoveries,  and  improvements,  as  mar- 
vellous in  their  nature  as  those  which  have 
marked  the  age  in  which  I  have  lived,  and  as 


Life  at   Tltree-Score.  25 

far  in  advance  of  what  we  now  see  as  those 
amazing  discoveries  are  in  advance  of  what 
preceding  ages  had  done.  You  will  not  be  sur- 
prised then  at  what  I  said,  that  I  have  now  a 
higher  idea  of  life  as  such — of  the  desirableness 
of  living — than  I  had  at  the  outset. 

So  also  in  reference  to  the  grand  purpose  of 
living — the  preparation  for  a  future  world — it 
seems  to  me  to  be  a  greater  object,  a  more 
desirable  thing,  to  live  in  this  world,  than  it 
did  when  I  began  life.  The  importance  of 
this  life  as  a  season  of  probation  steadily  in- 
creases as  we  come  in  sight  of  the  end,  and  see 
a  vast  eternity  not  far  before  us.  The  interests 
at  stake  grow  larger  and  larger.  Those  things 
which  ordinarily  occupy  the  attention  of  man- 
kind dwindle  almost  to  nothing.  The  earth, 
as  it  moves  in  its  orbit  from  year  to  year,  main- 
tains its  distance  of  ninety-five  millions  of  miles 
from  the  sun ;  and  the  sun,  except  when  seen 
through  a  hazy  atmosphere,  at  its  rising  or  its 
setting,  seems  at  all  times  to  be  of  the  same 
magnitude — to  human  view  an  object  always 
small  as  compared  with  our  own  world.     But 


26  Life  at  Three- Score. 

suppose  the  earth  should  leave  its  orbit,  and 
make  its  way  in  a  direct  line  towards  the  sun. 
How  soon  would  the  sun  seem  to  enlarge  its 
dimensions  !  How  vast  and  bright  would  it 
become  !  How  soon  w^ould  it  fill  the  whole 
field  of  vision,  and  all  on  the  earth  dwindle  to 
nothing !  So  human  life  now  appears  to  me. 
In  earlier  years  eternity  appears  distant  and 
small  in  importance.  But  at  the  period  of  life 
which  I  have  now  reached,  it  seems  to  me  as 
if  the  earth  had  left  the  orbit  of  its  annual 
movements,  and  w^as  making  a  rapid  and  direct 
flight  to  the  sun.  The  objects  of  eternity, 
towards  which  I  am  moving,  rapidly  enlarge 
themselves.  They  have  become  overpower- 
in  gly  bright  and  grand.  They  fill  the  whole 
field  of  vision,  and  the  earth,  with  all  which  is 
the  common  object  of  human  ambition  and 
pursuit,  is  vanishing  away! 

The  SECOND  thing  which  I  have  to  say  is, 
that  I  have  found  the  world  favourably  dis- 
posed towards  those  who  are  entering  on  life; 
favourably  disposed  towards  the  efibrts  which 


Life  at  ThreG-Score.  27 

may  be  made  to  promote  its  welfare.  I  found 
it  willing  to  aid  me  when  I  was  young;  I  have 
found  it  willing  to  favour  my  efforts  thus  far 
along  the  journey.  I  now  regard  it  as  kindly 
disposed  towards  young  men;  as  willing  to 
assist  them  in  times  of  trouble  and  embarrass- 
ment; as  willing  to  commit  all  its  great  interests 
into  their  hands. 

I  know  that  this  also  is  contrary  to  a  very 
prevalent  impression.  I  am  aware  that  there 
is  a  feeling  in  the  minds  of  many  young  men 
that  the  world  is  stern  and  unfriendly ;  that  it  is 
disposed  to  "turn  on  them  the  cold  shoulder;" 
that  they  who  have  filled  the  various  profes- 
sions, and  who  must  soon  leave  the  world,  look 
with  an  eye  of  jealousy,  if  not  of  envy,  on  those 
who  are  so  soon  to  come  into  possession  of 
whatever  they  have  gained  themselves — who 
will  reap  the  reward  which  they  would  them- 
selves gladly  reap,  and  fill  the  offices  which 
they  would  even  yet,  though  in  advanced  life, 
secure  for  themselves  :  in  one  word,  that  they 
give  up  the  world  reluctantly,  and  regard  with 
<"'    U^ust  and  suspicion  those  who  are  preparing 


28  Life  at  Three-Score. 

to  succeed  tliem;  that  they  look  on  young  men 
rather  as  rivals  than  as  vigorous  allies,  and 
commit  the  great  affairs  of  the  church  and  the 
world  into  their  hands  because  they  are  com- 
pelled to  do  so,  rather  than  because  they  have 
any  confidence  that  in  the  hands  of  a  succeed- 
ing generation  the  work  will  be  well  done. 

That  there  are  such  men  I  do  not  doubt. 
That  there  are  those  who  are  envious,  and 
jealous,  and  selfish;  that  there  are  those  who 
are  indisposed  to  sympathize  with  young  men 
in  their  efforts  to  get  along  in  the  world,  who 
treat  them  with  neglect,  and  who  do  nothing 
to  aid  them  in  their  honourable  exertions  to 
start  well  in  life,  and  who  see  them  struggle 
along  with  difficulties  without  extending  to 
them  a  helping  hand,  I  cannot  deny.  There 
have  been  such  men  in  every  age;  and  it  is 
^oossihle  that  any  one  entering  on  life  may  come 
in  contact  with  such  men. 

But  I  have  not  found  the  world  so  disposed 
towards  me;  nor  is  this  my  experience  in 
respect  to  those  who  have  borne  the  "  burden 
and  heat  of  the  dav,"  and  who  have  toiled  for 


Life  at   Three- Scc/i^e.  29 

objects  which  they  have  regarded  as  valuable. 
It  was  not  my  lot  to  find  that  the  men  who 
were  in  possession  of  the  honours  of  the  world, 
or  who  occupied  positions  of  trust  and  respon- 
sibility, were  unwilling  to  leave  them  to  other 
hands;  nor  has  it  been  my  experience  that 
those  who  had  gone  before  me  were  disposed  to 
throw  obstacles  in  my  way  as  I  entered  on  life. 
I  early  formed  the  opinion,  which  I  still  enter- 
tain, that  the  world  is  favourably  disposed 
towards  young  men,  and  that  all  which  they 
who  have  filled  the  professions,  and  who  have 
occupied  positions  of  trust  and  responsibility, 
ask  in  regard  to  those  who  are  to  come  after 
them,  is  that  they  shall  evince  traits  of  charac- 
ter which  will  make  them  worthy  of  confidence. 
When  that  is  done,  they  are  willing  to  commit 
all  that  for  which  they  have  toiled,  and  all 
which  they  regard  as  of  so  much  value,  into 
their  hands. 

I  began  life  with  no  wealth,  and  with  no 
patronage  from  powerful  friends.  I  was  blessed 
with   virtuous    and   industrious    parents,  and 

entered  on  my  course  with  the  advantage  which 

3«- 


30  Life  at  Tlirce-Swre. 

was  to  be  derived  from  their  counsels  and 
example.  I  was  dependent  on  my  own  efforts. 
I  claim  no  special  credit  for  this,  or  sympathy 
on  account  of  it,  for  this  is  the  way  in  which 
most  men  begin  the  world. 

I  have  always  foujid  the  world  kindly  dis- 
posed towards  any  exertion  which  I  was  dis- 
posed to  make  to  put  myself  forward  in  life. 
I  do  not  remember  that  I  ever  found  a  man  in 
my  early  years  who  was  disposed  to  throw  an 
obstacle  in  my  way,  or  who  would  not  have 
rejoiced  in  my  success.  My  old  pastor,  my 
teachers,  my  neighbours,  I  always  found  willing 
to  help  me  forward ;  and  what  I  found  in  them 
I  have  found  also  in  the  strangers  whom  I 
have  met  in  the  journey  of  life.  When  I  en- 
larged my  acquaintance  beyond  the  limits  of 
boyhood  and  youth,  I  did  not  encounter  a  cold 
and  unfriendly  world,  or  find  that  the  men 
who  had  not  before  known  me  were  disposed 
to  impede  my  progress,  or  to  throw  embarrass- 
ments in  my  path. 

I  have  never  lacked  friends;  never  failed  to 
find  a  friend  when  I  had  need  of  one.     I  know, 


Life  at   Three- Score.  31 

indeed,  what  it  is  for  a  young  man  to  weep 
when  he  starts  out  alone  to  engage  in  the  great 
struggles  of  life;  but  I  know,  also,  what  it  is  to 
have  tears  wiped  away,  and  anxieties  dispelled, 
and  clouds  dispersed,  and  the  heart  cheered,  as 
a  man  meets  with  smiles,  and  good  wishes,  and 
new-made  friends,  and  as  the  voice  of  public 
sentiment  encourages  him  to  go  forward. 

As  an  illustration  of  this,  it  may  not  be  im- 
proper to  refer  to  my  coming  among  you,  and 
to  some  of  the  incidents  connected  with  my 
ministry  here. 

I  came  here  a  young  man,  with  but  little 
experience,  with  no  personal  acquaintance  with 
the  manners  and  habits  of  a  great  city,  and 
with  no  such  reputation  as  to  make  success 
certain.  I  had  never  preached  before  the  con- 
gregation, when  I  was  called  to  be  its  pastor. 
I  came  at  that  early  period  of  life,  and  with 
that  want  of  experience,  to  succeed  the  most 
learned,  able,  and  eloquent  preacher  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church;  a  man  occupying  a  posi- 
tion in  this  community  which  no  other  man 
occupied ;  a  man  who  had  ministered  here  more 


32  Life  at  Three-Score. 

than  twenty  years;  a  man  whose  opmions 
secured  a  degree  of  respect  which  few  men  have 
ever  been  able  to  secure ;  a  man  beloved  and 
venerated  by  the  congregation  to  which  he  had 
so  long  ministered.  I  came  to  take  charge  of 
one  of  the  largest  and  most  influential  congre- 
gations in  the  land.  I  came  when  I  was  fully 
apprized  that  I  must  encounter  from  without 
a  most  decided  and  formidable  opposition  to 
the  views  which  I  had  cherished,  and  to  the 
doctrines  which  I  had  expressed. 

I  found  v[\y  venerable  predecessor  already, 
by  anticipation,  my  friend.  He  defended  my 
views.  He  endorsed  my  opinions.  He  exerted 
his  great  influence  in  the  congregation  in  my 
favour,  commending  me,  in  every  way,  by  his 
pen  and  his  counsel,  to  the  confidence  and 
affection  of  the  people  to  whom  he  had  so  long 
ministered.  For  six  months,  the  time  during 
which  he  lived  after  I  became  the  pastor  of  the 
church,  he  was  my  friend,  my  counsellor,  my 
adviser,  my  example;  he  did  all  that  could  be 
done  by  man  to  make  my  ministry  here  useful 
and  happy. 


Life  at  Three- Score.  33 

I  found  a  united  people.  During  the  six 
years  of  conflict  which  followed — years  which 
are  now  so  far  in  the  past  that  they  can  be 
remembered  by  only  a  small  portion  of  the 
congregation — notwithstanding  all  the  efforts 
made  from  without  to  crush  a  young  man,  and 
to  divide  the  congregation,  it  never  swerved  or 
hesitated.  None  were  drawn  away;  none 
among  us  attempted  to  make  a  division.  In 
every  new  phase  of  the  now  almost  forgotten 
struggle  before  the  Presbytery,  the  Synod,  and 
the  church  at  large,  the  entire  congregation 
stood  by  me  until  the  great  result  was  reached 
which  gave  us  peace. 

I  found  the  church  at  large  prepared  to  sus- 
tain me.  In  the  opposition  which  sprang  up 
around  us,  I  committed  the  cause — submitting 
for  six  painful  months,  for  the  sake  of  order, 
and  because  I  believed  the  constitution  of  the 
church  required  it — to  what  I  then  regarded, 
and  still  regard,  as  a  most  unrighteous  decision, 
to  the  judgment  of  the  church  at  large.  The 
highest  body  known  in  our  church — the  General 
Assembly — the  ultimate  resort  in  determining 


34        •  Life  at  Three- Score. 

the  views  of  our  church ,  reversed  what  had 
been  done  in  the  inferior  tribunals;  gave  its 
sanction  to  the  views  of  doctrine  for  which  we 
had  struggled;  and  confirmed,  by  its  high 
authority,  the  principles  which  my  predecessor 
had  maintained,  and  which  I  had  endeavoured, 
as  well  as  I  was  able,  to  defend.  I  have  seen 
evidence  in  this,  I  think,  certainly  in  my  own 
case,  that  the  world  is  kindlj^  disposed  towards 
young  men,  and  that  in  times  of  conflict  and 
struggle,  when  a  man  needs  a  friend,  he  will 
find  one. 

And  I  have  found,  also,  that  the  world  is  not 
unwilling  to  listen  to  the  truth;  and,  unless 
my  views  greatly  change  in  the  little  time  that 
remains  to  me  of  life,  I  shall  leave  it  with  the 
firm  conviction  that  truth  may  be  made  to 
commend  itself  to  men  so  as  to  secure  the 
assent  of  the  understanding  and  the  heart.  I 
know  the  natural  opposition  of  the  human 
heart  to  the  gospel,  and  I  am  not  ignorant  that 
men,  under  the  influence  of  sinful  passions 
and  pursuits,  turn  away  from  that  truth  which 
would  lead  them  to  God.     But  I  have  found 


Life  at   Three-Score.  35 

in  man  that  which,  under  God,  may  be  relied 
on  in  the  attempt  to  convince  the  world  of 
truth.  I  have  aimed,  in  my  ministry — not 
now  a  short  one — to  declare  the  whole  counsel 
of  God.  I  have  embraced  the  Trinitarian  sys- 
tem of  religion,  and  the  Calvinistic  system,  and 
have  not  concealed  the  features  of  these  sys- 
tems from  the  world.  I  have  endeavoured  to 
set  forth  the  doctrines  of  human  depravity,  and 
of  the  atonement,  and  of  the  necessity  of  re- 
generation by  the  Holy  Ghost.  I  have  de- 
fended the  doctrine  of  decrees,  of  election,  of 
justification  by  faith,  and  of  future  retribution. 
I  have  endeavoured  to  show  to  men  that  they 
can  be  saved  by  no  merit  of  their  own,  and 
that  their  own  works  wall  avail  them  nothing 
in  the  matter  of  justification  before  God.  I 
have  spoken,  as  I  was  able,  against  all  forms 
of  vice,  against  all  oppression  and  wrong, 
against  sinful  amusements;  I  have  spoken 
freely  of  the  theatre,  and  the  gay  assembly, 
and  of  the  influence  of  the  world  on  the  mem- 
bers of  the  church.  That  I  may  have  never 
given  ofience,  is  more  than  a  man  could  havG 


36  Life  at  TJiree-Score. 

a  right  to  hope ;  nor  do  I  mean  to  say  that  I 
have  always  carried  the  hearts  of  my  hearers 
with  me.  But  I  have  never  doubted  that  I 
could  carry  with  me  in  the  cause  of  truth,  if 
properly  presented,  the  understandings  and  the 
consciences  of  my  hearers ;  nor  do  I  now  doubt 
that  the  great  doctrines  of  religion  may  be  so 
presented  to  mankind  as  to  secure  ultimately 
a  universal  conviction  of  their  truth,  and  so  as 
to  bring  all  hearts  under  their  control.  I  am 
hopeful,  therefore,  as  to  the  result  of  my  obser- 
vation and  experience,  in  regard  to  the  power 
of  the  truth,  and  I  expect  to  leave  the  world 
with  the  full  conviction  that  it  may  be,  and 
that  it  yet  will  be,  so  presented  to  the  mind  of 
man  as  to  secure  a  universal  assent  to  its  claims ; 
so  that  all  men  shall  receive  it,  and  retain  it, 
with  as  much  firmness  as  its  comparatively  few 
friends  do  now. 

In  the  THIRD  place,  I  have  seen  the  value  of 
temperance.  I  began  life  when  the  use  of  in- 
toxicating drinks  prevailed  generally  in  our 
country.     I  was  never  intemperate ;  but  I  was 


Life  at   Three- Score.  37 

exposed  to  the  temptations  to  which  those  who 
enter  on  life  when  such  habits  prevail,  are  ex- 
posed, and  I  have  seen  many  of  the  companions 
of  my  early  years  sink  to  the  grave  as  the 
result  of  habits  formed  under  those  customs. 

The  great  work  of  the  temperance  reforma- 
tion, in  this  country,  commenced  about  the 
time  that  I  entered  on  my  ministry.  I  early 
embraced,  in  the  most  rigid  form,  personally, 
and  with  respect  to  my  preaching,  the  great 
principle  of  the  temperance  reformation — that 
of  entire  abstinence  from  all  intoxicating 
beverages.  I  have  preached,  in  former  years, 
much  on  the  subject;  perhaps,  as  some  may 
have  thought,  giving  to  it  a  disproportionate 
importance ;  and,  personally,  I  have  adhered 
rigidly  to  the  strict  principles  which  I  early 
adopted. 

I  am  now  at  a  time  of  life  favourable,  I 
think,  for  forming  a  candid  opinion  of  the 
principles  which  I  have  held^  and  I  have  no 
motive  for  any  bias  in  regard  to  the  matter. 
After  more  than  thirty  years  have  passed  away 
in    practising   on   those   principles,   and  after 


38  Life  at  Three- Score. 

having  made  so  many  efforts  in  my  ministry  to 
persuade  my  fellow-men^  and  especially  the 
young,  to  embrace  them,  I  think  I  am  in  a 
favourable  situation  for  expressing  an  opinion 
as  to  their  correctness  and  value. 

I  naturally  now  look  at  the  subject  j^erson- 
alhj^  and  with  reference  to  my  iniblic  ministry. 

I  have  mentioned  that  I  adopted  the  most 
rigid  views  on  the  subject.  I  embraced  the 
principle  of  entire  abstinence  from  all  that  c^jn 
intoxicate.  I  have  adhered  to  that  principle. 
For  thirty  years  I  have  rigidly  abstained  from 
even  wine,  except  as  prescribed  by  a  physician, 
and  then  most  rarely.  I  have  never  kept  it  in 
my  family ;  I  have  never  provided  it  for  my 
friends ;  I  have  declined  it  when  it  has  been 
placed  before  me,  and  when  I  have  been  present 
where  others,  even  clergymen,  have  indulged 
in  its  use.  I  have  never  concealed  my  senti- 
ments on  the  subject;  and  in  thus  abstaining, 
in  all  the  circles  where  I  have  been,  whether 
of  religious  men,  or  worldly  men,  at  home,  at 
sea,  abroad,  I  have  seen  only  a  marked  respect 
for  my  sentiments.     However   much  I  may 


Life  at  Three-Score.  39 

have  differed  in  practice  from  those  with  whom 
I  have  been,  I  have  never  known  one  thing 
done  or  said  to  give  me  pain,  nor  have  I  found 
that  men,  whatever  might  be  their  own  prac- 
tice, have  been  any  the  less  disposed  to  show 
me  respect  on  account  of  my  views.  I  now 
approve  the  course,  and  if  I  were  to  live  my 
life  over  again,  I  see  nothing  in  this  matter 
which  I  would  wish  to  change.  I  am  per- 
suaded that  the  principle  has  all  the  import- 
ance which  I  have  ever  attached  to  it.  I  have 
lost  nothing  by  it;  I  have  gained  much. 

I  have  lost  nothing  on  the  score  of  health ; 
I  have  gained  much.  I  have  had  a  clearer 
intellect  than  I  should  otherwise  have  had;  I 
have  had  more  bodily  vigour;  I  have  had  a 
calmer  mind,  and  I  have  had  more  cheerful 
spirits.  I  have  had  more  ability  to  labour, 
and  I  have  had  a  more  uniform  inclination  to 
labour. 

I  have  lost  nothing  in  public  estimation.  I 
have  no  reason  to  believe  that  it  has  ever 
occurred  that  any  one  has  been  inclined  to 
regard  or  treat  me  with  less  respect  and  confi- 


40  Life  at   Three- Score. 

dence  because  of  the  principles  which  I  have 
cherished  on  this  subject,  and  which  I  have 
endeavoured  to  carry  out  in  my  daily  life.  No 
one  has,  to  my  knowledge,  ever  questioned  the 
propriety  of  my  course,  in  this  respect )  no  one 
has  ever  suggested  that  it  was  inconsistent  with 
my  profession  as  a  Christian  man,  or  with  my 
duty  as  a  minister  of  the  gospel. 

I  have  lost  nothing  on  the  score  of  useful- 
ness. In  looking  back  now  over  my  course,  I 
cannot  believe  that  I  should  have  been  more 
useful  to  any  class  of  men  by  adopting  a  differ- 
ent course ;  I  am  certain  that  I  should  have 
been  less  useful  to  many — that  many  to  whom 
I  would  be  glad  to  be  useful,  would  have  been 
pained  if  I  had  pursued  a  different  course,  and 
would  have  made  it  an  objection  against  the 
gospel  which  I  could  not  readily  have  met. 

I  have  lost  nothing  on  the  score  of  happi- 
ness. I  am  certain  that  I  should  have  added 
nothing  to  the  real  happiness  of  my  life  if  I 
had  followed  the  usages  which  I  found  in  so- 
ciety in  early  life,  or  if  I  had  comjDlied  w^ith 
the  customs  on   this  subject  which  formerly 


JJfe  at  Three-Score.  41 

prevailed;  and  which,  to  some  extent,  still  pre- 
vail, among  professing  Christians  and  ministers 
of  the  gospel.  I  do  not  see  now — I  cannot 
see — that  a  different  course,  in  this  respect, 
would  have  made  me  a  more  happy  man. 

And  I  cannot  forget  that  by  this  course  of 
life,  whatever  may  liaA^e  occurred  in  other 
respects,  I  have  escaped  dangers  to  which  I 
should  have  been  exposed,  and  which  might 
have  proved  my  ruin.  I  have  not  lived  so 
long  upon  the  earth  without  seeing  painful 
evidence  that  no  profession,  not  even  the  min- 
istry of  the  gospel,  of  itself  secures  a  man  from 
the  dangers  of  intemperance;  and  I  have  seen 
most  sad  and  humiliating  illustrations  of  the 
effect  of  indulging  in  intoxicating  drinks  even 
among  ministers  of  the  gospel ;  and,  whatever 
else  may  have  occurred  in  my  life,  it  is  a  source 
of  grateful  reflection  to  me  now  that  I  have 
not  fallen  as  they  have  done ;  that  I  have  been 
permitted  to  feel  the  confident  assurance  that 
as  long  as  I  adhered  to  this  fixed  purpose  I 
was  absolutely  certain  that  one  of  the  direst 
curses  that  can  come  upon  men  would  never 


42  Life  at   Three-Score. 

come  upon  me,  that  of  disgracing  my  profes- 
sion, and  crushing  the  hearts  of  my  friends,  and 
covering  my  own  name  with  infamy,  by  intem- 
perance. 

I  adhere  now,  therefore,  most  firmly  to  the 
resolution  which  I  adopted  early  in  my  life, 
and  I  intend,  by  the  grace  of  God,  to  maintain 
it  steadfastly  till  my  death.  I  see  no  reason 
for  changing  it  now;  I  am  certain  that  I  shall 
see  no  reason  hereafter  for  doing  it.  I  can 
conceive  of  nothing  that  could  be  gained  by 
my  departing  from  it;  and  I  do  not  intend  to 
depart  from  it.  My  principles  on  this  point 
are  well  understood  by  all  who  know  me,  and 
I  intend  that  they  shall  always  be  thus  under- 
stood. I  commend  the  same  rule  to  others, 
especially  to  those  who  are  in  the  morning  of 
life,  as  a  safe  and  a  wise  rule  of  life.  It  can 
injure  no  one  to  abstain  wholly  from  that 
which  is  not  needful  for  vigour  of  mind  or 
body;  it  would  certainly  save  from  that  which 
is  at  all  times  most  dangerous,  and  w^iich  may 
be  ruinous  to  the  body  and  to  the  soul.  It 
would  be  much  for  any  man  to  secure  at  the 


Life  at  Three- Score.  43 

beginning  of  life,  to  be  able  to  make  it  abso- 
lutely certain  that,  whatever  of  calamity,  trou- 
ble, misfortune,  or  change  might  occur,  one 
thing  was  fixed, — that  he  would  never  die  a 
drunkard.  The  rule  which  I  have  adopted  for 
myself,  and  which  I  have  acted  on,  would 
make  ilds  absolutely  certain  in  any  case. 

I  look  with  equal  satisfaction  and  approba- 
tion over  my  public  efforts  in  the  cause  of 
temperance.  It  was  my  lot  to  begin  my  minis- 
try in  a  region  of  country  where  the  usual 
customs  on  this  subject  prevailed,  and  where 
alcoholic  drinks  were  extensively  manufactured 
and  sold.  Within  the  limits  of  my  pastoral 
charge,  embracing  an  extent  not  far  from  ten 
miles  in  diameter,  there  were  nineteen  places 
where  the  article  was  manufactured,  and  twenty 
where  it  was  sold.  I  considered  it  my  duty 
early  to  call  the  attention  of  my  people  to  the 
subject.  I  presented  my  views,  in  successive 
discourses,  plainly  and  earnestly.  I  appealed 
to  their  reason,  to  their  conscience,  to  their  re- 
ligion. I  showed  what  I  understood  to  be  the 
doctrine  of  the   Bible  on   the  subject,   and   I 


44  Life  at  Tlirce-Scoi^e. 

stated  the  influence  of  the  joractice  on  the  hap- 
piness of  familieSj  and  on  the  peace,  the  order, 
and  the  morals  of  the  community,  and  its  in- 
fluence in  producing  pauperism,  wretchedness, 
crime,  and  death.  The  appeal  was  not  in  vain. 
I  found  early  in  my  ministry,  even  where 
habits  had  been  long  established,  where  pro- 
perty was  involved,  and  where  sacrifices  would 
be  required  on  their  part  in  adopting  my  views, 
that  men  would  listen  to  the  voice  of  reason 
and  the  voice  of  God.  I  had  the  happiness  to 
know  that,  in  eighteen  out  of  the  twenty  places 
where  intoxicating  drinks  were  sold,  the  traffic 
was  soon  abandoned ;  and  I  saw,  in  seventeen 
out  of  nineteen  of  those  places  where  the  poison 
was  manufactured,  the  fires  go  out  to  be  re- 
kindled no  more.  I  had  a  proof  thus  early  in 
my  ministry,  which  has  been  of  great  value  to 
me  since,  of  the  fact  that  truth  may  be  pre- 
sented to  the  minds  of  men  so  as  to  secure 
their  approbation  even  when  great  pecuniary 
sacrifices  must  be  made,  and  when  it  would 
lead  to  important  changes  in  the  customs  and 
habits  of  society. 


Hfe  at   Tlivee-Score.  45 

I  have  maintained  publicly  the  same  princi- 
ples since.  I  have  defended  the  cause  of  tem- 
perance in  every  way  in  my  power.  I  have 
advocated  the  principle  of  total  abstinence  from 
all  that  can  intoxicate ;  I  have  vindicated  the 
use  of  "the  pledge;"  I  have  argued  against 
those  laws  which  contemplate  the  licensing  of 
that  which  is  admitted  to  be  an  evil;  I  have 
exhorted  the  church  to  set  an  example  of  total 
abstinence;  I  have  endeavoured  to  show  that 
the  manufacture  and  sale  of  ardent  s]3irits  for 
drinking-purposes  can  be  reconciled  neither 
with  the  principles  of  sound  morality  nor  reli- 
gion ;  I  have  defended  the  propriety  of  a  law 
which  would  wholly  prohibit  the  sale  of  alco- 
holic drinks  except  for  purposes  of  medicine 
and  manufactures.  I  have  endeavoured  to 
show  you,  that  as  you  would  not  suffer  a  pow- 
der-manufactory to  be  set  up  in  Washington 
Square;  as  you  would  not  allow  a  cargo  of 
damaged  hides  to  be  landed  at  your  wharves ; 
as  you  would  not  permit  a  vessel  from  an  in- 
fected region  to  come  into  port,  so  the  true  and 
the  safe  principle  would  be  to  exclude  and  pro- 


46  Life  at  Three- Score, 

Libit  forever  that  which  spreads  woe,  poverty, 
disease,  crime,  pollution,  and  death : — that  a 
community  is  bound  to  protect  itself,  and  that 
no  class  of  men,  for  private  gain,  can  have  a 

riaiit  to  scatter  death  and   ruin   around  the 

<^ 

land. 

The  cause  of  temperance,  as  a  cause,  has  met 
with  a  Waterloo  defeat.  The  advocates  of  the 
use  of  intoxicating  liquors  have  triumphed. 
The  barriers  against  intemperance  have  been 
broken  down.  The  temperance-societies  have 
been  disbanded.  The  restraints  on  the  manu- 
facture and  sale  of  that  which  poisons  and  ruins 
have  been  withdrawn.  The  utmost  liberty  in 
the  manufacture  and  sale  has  been  conceded 
by  the  laws;  and  the  voice  of  persuasion,  of 
entreaty,  and  of  warning  has  almost  died  away. 
The  community  has  determined  that  there 
shall  be  no  restraint,  and  that  all  men  may 
manufacture,  and  sell,  and  drink  as  they 
please.  The  floodgates  are  thrown  wide  open, 
and  the  experiment  is  to  be  again  made,  on  the 
largest  scale,  to  determine  what  will  be  the 
effect  of  unlimited  indulgence  in  intoxicating 


Life  at  Three- Score.  4:7 

drinks.  The  community  has  expressed  its 
willingness  to  tax  itself  to  support  paupers, 
ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  of  whom  are 
made  paupers  by  the  direct  or  indirect  influence 
of  intoxication ;  to  pay  the  expenses  of  building 
prisons,  and  conducting  the  business  of  courts, 
and  supporting  convicts  for  burglary,  arson, 
brawls,  and  manslaughter,  nine  cases  out  of 
every  ten  of  which  are  produced  by  intemper- 
ance,— to  bear  this  enormous  burden  because 
there  is  a*  small  portion  of  the  community 
which  demands  the  privilege  of  supporting 
itself  by  scattering  wretchedness  and  crime 
over  the  land ;  by  breaking  the  hearts  of  wives, 
mothers,  and  sisters ;  and  by  consigning  hus- 
bands, fathers,  and  sons  to  the  wa^etched  grave 
of  the  drunkard.  Meantime  the  press  is  silent. 
The  pulpit  is  dumb.  The  voice  of  w^arning 
and  entreaty  has  died  away.  A  most  fearful 
experiment  is  made  in  the  land;  an  experiment 
whose  result  God  alone  can  see. 

I  adhere  now,  and  shall  till  I  die,  to  the 
principles  on  this  subject  which  I  have  pub- 
licly advocated,  and  I  believe  that  they  wall 


48  Life  at  Three- Score. 

ultimately  be  found  to  be  true  principles,  and 
that  the  world  will  adopt  them.  I  believe 
that  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  ardent  spirits 
for  the  purpose  of  a  beverage  is  an  immoral 
employment,  and  a  ruinous  waste  of  capital; 
that  the  only  safe  and  correct  principle  for  an 
individual,  if  he  would  promote  his  health,  his 
prosperity,  his  reputation,  his  usefulness  here, 
and  his  salvation  in  the  world  to  come,  is  that 
of  total  abstinence ;  that  the  practice  of  licens- 
ing an  evil  in  any  form  and  for  any  purposes — 
of  throwing  the  protection  of  the  law,  for  a 
miserable  revenue,  over  that  which  spreads 
woe,  and  poverty,  and  crime  in  the  land — is  as 
erroneous  in  principle  as  it  is  pernicious  in  its 
consequences ;  and  that  the  true  principle  in 
the  matter  is  that  of  entire  prohibition  of  that 
which  is  ^^evil,  and  only  evil,  and  evil  con- 
tinually." I  believe  that  a  community  would 
be  better  and  happier,  more  prosperous  in 
worldly  matters,  and  more  religious  towards 
God,  where  this  should  be  done;  and  that  in 
doing   this,    no    just   principle    in   legislation 


Life  at   Three- Score.  49 

would   be  violated.     I  expect  to  die  holding 
that  opinion. 

In  the  FOURTH  place,  I  have  seen  the  value 
of  industry ;  and  as  I  owe  to  this,  under  God, 
whatever  success  I  have  obtained,  it  seems  to 
me  not  improper  to  speak  of  it  here,  and  to 
recommend  the  habit  to  those  who  are  just 
entering  on  life. 

I  had  nothing  else  to  depend  on  but  this. 
I  had  no  capital  when  I  began  life ;  I  had  no 
powerful  patronage  to  help  me;  I  had  no 
natural  endowments,  as  I  believe  that  no  man 
has,  that  could  supply  the  place  of  industry; 
and  it  is  not  improper  here  to  say  that  all  that 
I  have  been  able  to  do  in  this  world  has  been 
the  result  of  habits  of  industry  which  began 
early  in  life ;  which  were  commended  to  me  by 
the  example  of  a  venerated  father;  and  which 
have  been,  and  are,  an  abiding  source  of  enjoy- 
ment. 

And  here — and  it  was  with  a  view  to  this 
in  part  that  I  have  introduced  this  subject  at 
all — it  seems  to  me  to  be  proper  to  allude  to 


50  Life  at  Threes  Score, 

what  I  have  never  before  referred  to  in  the 
pulpit; — the  use  which  I  have  made  of  the 
press.  It  may  have  appeared  strange  that  a 
man  with  such  a  pastoral  charge  as  I  have  had, 
and  under  such  responsibilities  as  have  been 
on  me  J — a  salaried  man,  employed  to  do  a  spe- 
cific work,  and  that  not  the  work  of  book- 
making, — should  have  felt  himself  at  liberty  to 
devote  so  much  time  as  I  have  done  to  an  em- 
ployment that  seems  to  be  so  connected  with  a 
private  end,  and  so  remote  from  the  duties  of 
a  pastor.  I  admit  that  the  point  is  one  which 
demands  some  explanation,  and  though  I  have 
never  learned  that  any  complaint  has  been 
made  in  any  quarter  on  the  subject,  yet  it 
seems  proper  that  once  for  all — and  no  better 
time  to  do  it  is  likely  to  occur — I  should  state 
w^hy  it  has  been  done. 

Dr.  Doddridge,  in  reference  to  his  own  work, 
the  "  Paraphrase  on  the  New  Testament," — a 
work  which,  in  my  judgment,  better  expresses 
the  true  sense  of  the  New  Testament,  and  is  a 
more  finished  and  elegant  commentary  on 
that  portion  of  the  Bible  than  any  other  in 


Life  at   Three- Score.  61 

the  English  language, — said  that  its  being 
written  at  all  was  owing  to  the  difference 
between  rising  at  five  and  at  seven  o'clock  in 
the  morning.  A  remark  similar  to  this  will 
explain  all  that  I  have  done.  Whatever  I 
have  accomplished  in  the  way  of  commentary 
on  the  Scriptures  is  to  be  traced  to  the  fact  of 
rising  at  four  in  the  morning,  and  to  the  time 
thus  secured  which  I  thought  might  properly 
be  employed  in  a  work  not  immediately  con- 
nected with  my  pastoral  labours.  That  habit  I 
have  pursued  now  for  many  years ;  rather,  as 
far  as  my  conscience  advises  me  on  the  sub- 
ject, because  I  loved  the  work  itself,  than 
from  any  idea  of  gain  or  of  reputation,  or, 
indeed,  from  any  definite  plan  as  to  the  work 
itself. 

And  here,  as  my  publications  on  the  Scrip- 
tures have  had  a  circulation  which  I  never 
anticipated,  and  which  I  have  always  found 
it  difficult  to  account  for,  it  may  be  proper  to 
state,  in  few  words,  the  manner  in  which  my 
attention  was  first  directed  to  it,  and  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  the  work  has  been  conducted. 


52  Life  at  Three-Score. 

until  a  result  has  been  reached  which  so  as- 
tonishes me,  and  which  overwhelms  me  now 
with  the  responsibility  of  what  I  have  done. 

My  attention  was  first  directed  to  the  sub- 
ject by  what  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  want  in 
Sabbath-schools^  the  want  of  a  plain  and  sim- 
ple commentary  on  the  Gospels,  which  could 
be  put  into  the  hands  of  teachers,  and  which 
would  furnish  an  easy  explanation  of  the 
meaning  of  the  sacred  writers.  I  began  the 
work,  and  prepared  brief  notes  on  a  portion 
of  the  Gospel  of  Matthew,  when  I  incidentally 
learned  that  the  Rev.  James  W.  Alexander, 
D.D.,  then  of  Trenton,  now  of  New  York,  was 
engaged  in  preparing  a  similar  work.  Not 
deeming  it  desirable  that  two  books  of  the 
same  kind  should  be  prepared,  I  wrote  to  him 
on  the  subject.  He  replied  that  he  had  been 
employed  by  the  American  Sunday-School 
Union  to  prepare  such  a  work;  that  he  had 
made  about  the  same  amount  of  manuscript 
preparation  which  I  had  done;  that  he  re- 
garded it  as  undesirable  that  two  works  of 
the   same   character   should   be   issued;    that 


Life  at   Three-Score.  63 

his  health  was  delicate,  and  that  he  would 
gladly  relinquish  the  undertaking.  He  aban- 
doned it,  as  I  have  always  felt,  with  a  gene- 
rous spirit,  manifesting  at  that  early  time  of 
life,  alike  in  the  act  itself  and  in  his  letter  to 
me  on  the  subject,  the  same  high  trait  of  cha- 
racter as  a  Christian  gentleman  which  has 
always  so  eminently  distinguished  him.  I 
have  prosecuted  the  work  until  a  result  has 
been  reached  which  I  by  no  means  contem- 
plated at  the  outset. 

All  my  commentaries  on  the  Scriptures 
have  been  written  before  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  At  the  very  beginning,  now  more 
than  thirty  years  ago,  I  adopted  a  resolution 
to  stop  writing  on  these  Notes  when  the  clock 
struck  nine.  This  resolution  I  have  invaria- 
bly adhered  to,  not  unfrequently  finishing  my 
morning  task  in  the  midst  of  a  paragraph,  and 
sometimes  even  in  the  midst  of  a  sentence. 

In  preparing  so  many  books  for  the  public, 
while  under  obligation  to  perform  the  duties 
of  a  pastor  in  a  large  congregation,  seemingly 
abstracting  time  for  a  private  end  which  might 


54  Life  at   Three-Score, 

have  been  devoted  directly  to  my  duties  as  a 
Christian  minister,  I  have  justified  my  course 
to  my  mind  by  two  considerations  : — 

One  was,  that  I  thought  that  no  one  could  rear 
sonably  complain,  if  I  took  that  time  for  what 
seemed  to  be  a  side-worJc  before  men  usually 
entered  on  the  duties  of  the  day,  and  that  if 
I  devoted  the  time  afte?'  nine  in  the  morning 
to  the  work  of  preparation  for  the  pulpit,  and 
to  my  pastoral  labours,  I  should  devote  as  much 
each  day  to  my  professional  duties  as  other 
men  ordinarily  do  to  the  callings  of  life ;   and, 

The  other  was,  that  I  could  in  no  way  bet- 
ter prepare  myself  for  my  public  ministerial 
labours,  than  by  devoting  a  portion  of  each 
morning  to  the  careful  study  of  the  word  of 
God — the  volume  which  it  has  been  the  duty 
of  my  life  to  explain  and  defend.  The  best 
method  of  studying  any  subject  is  by  writing 
on  it ;  and,  apart  from  all  idea  of  publication, 
and  even  supposing  that  accumulated  manu- 
scripts were  committed  to  the  flames,  I  know 
now  of  no  way  in  which  a  minister  of  the 
gospel  could  better  prepare   himself   for  his 


Life  at   Three- Score.  55 

public  ministrations,  than  by  spending  two 
hours  each  morning  in  a  careful  and  critical 
study  of  the  Bible.  I  know  of  no  part  of  my 
studies  from  which  I  have  derived  more  real 
aid  in  my  public  ministrations,  than  from  the 
habit  thus  early  formed,  and  so  long  perse- 
vered in,  of  beginning  each  day  with  the 
study  of  the  w^ord  of  God.  At  the  same 
time,  it  is  not  improper  to  refer  here  to  the 
happiness  which  I  have  found  in  these  studies. 
In  the  recollection  now  of  the  past  portions 
of  my  life,  I  refer  to  these  morning  hours — to 
the  stillness  and  quiet  of  my  room  in  this 
house  of  God  when  I  have  been  permitted  to 
'^  prevent  the  dawning  of  the  morning"  in  the 
study  of  the  Bible,  Avhile  the  inhabitants  of 
this  great  city  w^ere  slumbering  round  about 
me,  and  before  the  cares  of  the  day  and  its 
direct  responsibilities  came  on  me — to  the 
hours  which  I  have  thus  spent  in  a  close 
contemplation  of  divine  truth,  endeavouring 
to  understand  its  import,  to  remove  the  diffi- 
culties that  might  pertain  to  it,  and  to  ascer- 
tain   its   practical    bearing   on   the   Christian 


56  Life  at   Tliree-Score. 

life, — I  refer,  I  say,  to  these  scenes  as  among 
the  happiest  portions  of  my  life.  If  I  have 
had  any  true  communion  with  God  in  my  life ; 
if  I  have  made  any  progress  in  Christian 
piety;  if  I  am,  in  any  respect,  a  better  man, 
and  a  more  confirmed  Christian,  than  I  Avas 
when  I  entered  the  ministry ;  if  I  have  made 
any  progress  in  my  preparation  for  that  w^orld 
on  which  I  must,  at  no  distant  period,  enter ; 
and  if  I  have  been  enabled  to  do  you  any 
good  in  explaining  to  you  the  word  of  God, 
it  has  been  closely  connected  with  those  calm 
and  quiet  scenes  when  I  felt  that  I  was  alone 
with  God,  and  when  my  mind  was  thus 
brought  into  close  contact  with  those  truths 
which  the  Holy  Ghost  has  inspired.  I  look 
back  to  those  periods  of  my  life  with  gratitude 
to  God ;  and  I  could  not  do  a  better  thing  in 
reference  to  my  younger  brethren  in  the  mi- 
nistry, than  to  commend  this  habit  to  them  as 
one  closely  connected  with  their  own  personal 
piety,  and  their  usefulness  in  the  world. 

Manuscripts,  when  a  man  writes  every  day, 
even  though  he  w^rites  but  little,  accumulate. 


Life  at  Three- Score.  57 

Dr.  Johnson  was  once  asked  how  it  was  that 
the  Christian  Fathers,  and  the  men  of  other 
times,  could  find  leisure  to  fill  so  many  folios 
with  the  productions  of  their  23ens.  "  Nothing 
is  easier/'  said  he ;  and  he  at  once  began  a  cal- 
culation to  show  what  would  be  the  effect  in 
the  ordinary  term  of  a  man's  life  if  he  wrote 
only  one  octavo  page  in  a  day ;  and  the  ques- 
tion was  solved.  The  result  in  thirty  or  forty 
years  would  account  for  all  that  Jerome,  or 
Chrysostom,  or  Augustine,  that  Luther,  Cal- 
vin, or  Baxter,  have  done.  In  this  manner 
manuscripts  accumulated  on  my  hands  until  I 
have  been  surprised  to  find  that  by  this  slow 
and  steady  process  I  have  been  enabled  to 
prepare  eleven  volumes  of  commentary  on 
the  New  Testament,  and  five  on  portions  of 
the  Old  Testament,  and  that  the  aggregate 
number  of  volumes  of  commentary  on  the 
New  Testament  which  I  have  thus  sent  abroad, 
is  more  than  four  hundred  thousand  in  our 
own  country,  and  I  suppose  a  larger  number 
abroad. 

I  cannot  but  feel  now  most  deeply  the  re- 


58  Life  at   Three- Score, 

sponsibility  of  the  work  which  I  have  done, 
and  which  is  so  foreign  to  any  2:>urpose  or  ex- 
pectation of  my  early  years.  I  cannot  now 
recall  those  books.  I  cannot  control  any  im- 
pression which  they  may  make.  It  affects 
me  also  deeply  to  reflect  that  the  sentiments 
in  those  books  are  most  likely  to  come  in 
contact  with  minds  through  which  they  will 
exert  an  influence  when  I  am  dead, — the 
minds  of  the  young.  And  yet  I  would  not 
recall  them  if  I  could.  With  all  my  con- 
sciousness of  their  imperfection,  and  with  my 
firm  expectation  that  some  man  will  yet  pre- 
pare a  commentary  on  the  New  Testament 
far  better  fitted  to  accomplish  the  end  which 
I  have  sought  than  my  own  writings  are,  and 
with  the  feeling  that,  at  my  time  of  life,  I 
cannot  hope  to  revise  them,  and  to  make  them 
conformable  to  what  I  would  desire  them  to 
be,  I  still  believe  that  they  contain  the  sys- 
tem of  eternal  truth  ;  that  they  defend  what 
is  right ;  that  their  influence  will  be  to  illus- 
trate, in  some  measure,  a  great  system  of  doc- 
trines, which  is   closely  connected  with   the 


Life  at   Three- Score.  59 

salvation  of  men;  and  that,  with  all  their 
imperfections,  they  give  utterance  to  just  sen- 
timents on  the  nature  of  true  piety,  and  the 
duties  of  practical  religion.  They  will  dis- 
appear from  the  world  as  other  books  have 
done,  and  as  their  author  will, — alike  forgotten. 
Yet  the  truths  which  they  are  designed  to 
illustrate  will  live  on  to  the  end  of  time; 
truths,  I  hope,  to  be  better  illustrated,  and 
more  earnestly  enforced,  by  those  who  are  to 
come  after  us. 

I  shall  depart  from  the  world,  when  my 
allotted  time  comes,  with  an  impression  con- 
stantly increasing,  of  the  value  of  the  press, 
and  especially  of  its  value  as  an  auxiliary  in 
spreading  abroad  the  truths  of  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  Its  importance  as  an  aid  in  diffusing 
truth  is  not  yet  fully  known,  and  is  not  appre- 
ciated as  it  should  be,  even  by  ministers  of 
religion.  Without  departing  in  any  manner 
from  the  proper  work  of  the  ministry ;  with- 
out leading  them  in  any  way  to  neglect  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel,  or  their  proper  pas- 
toral  duties;  and  with   no  purpose  on  their 


60  Ufe  at  Three-Score. 

part  to  make  it  a  source  of  fame  or  emolu- 
ment, it  seems  to  me  now  that  much  may  be 
expected  by  the  church  at  large  from  the 
large  body  of  educated  men  in  the  ministry, 
who,  by  their  training,  their  talents,  and  their 
position,  have  so  much  power  to  influence  the 
minds  of  men  through  the  press. 

In  the  FIFTH  place,  I  have  seen  the  value  of 
religion,  and  have  become  more  and  more 
convinced,  as  I  have  passed  along  on  the  jour- 
ney of  life,  that  the  Bible  is  a  revelation  from 
God. 

T  began  life  a  skeptic  in  religion,  and  I  early 
fortified  and  poisoned  my  mind  by  reading  all 
the  books  to  which  I  could  find  access,  that 
were  adapted  to  foster  and  sustain  my  native 
skepticism.  Up  to  the  age  of  nineteen,  though 
outwardly  moral,  and  though,  in  the  main, 
respectful  in  my  treatment  of  religion,  I  had 
no  belief  in  the  Bible  as  a  revelation  from 
God,  nor  was  I  willing  to  be  convinced  that 
it  is  such  a  revelation. 

Circumstances  which  need  not  now  be  ad- 


Life  at  Three- Score.  61 

verted  to,  but  which  related  rather  to  the 
choice  of  a  profession  than  to  any  question 
about  the  truth  of  religion,  led  me  to  some 
reflection  on  the  general  subject  of  the  future, 
and  to  the  course  which  I  should  pursue  in  the 
world.  I  should  have  shrunk  at  that  time 
from  its  being  understood  that  I  read  the 
Bible,  and  I  should  equally  have  avoided  any 
book  that  would  be  understood  by  my  asso- 
ciates to  suggest  the  thought  that  I  was  a 
serious  inquirer  in  regard  to  my  salvation. 
Among  them,  however,  I  was  not  ashamed  to 
be  seen  reading  a  book  which  was  in  all  our 
hands, — the  Edinhurgh  Encyclopedia,  then  in 
a  course  of  publication.  One  of  the  numbers 
of  that  work  had  an  article  by  Dr.  Chalmers, 
entitled  Christianity.  I  read  it.  The  argu- 
ment to  me  was  new.  It  fi5:ed  my  attention. 
It  commanded  my  assent.  It  convinced  me, 
intellectually,  of  the  divine  origin  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  At  this  day,  that  article  seems 
to  me  to  be  among  the  most  able  of  the  pro- 
ductions of  that  great  man,  and  to  be  the  best 


62  Life  at  Three- Score. 

defence  of  the  truth  of  Christianity  which  has 
been  published. 

But  with  this  intellectual  conviction  I 
paused.  I  formed  a  purpose  on  the  subject 
of  religion  which  I  then  intended  should  regu- 
late my  future  course  in  this  world.  It  was 
to  lead  henceforward  a  strictly  moral  life;  to 
say  nothing  against  religion  \  not  to  be  found 
on  any  occasion  among  its  opposers ;  but  to 
yield  to  its  claims  no  farther.  I  resolved,  to 
express  my  purpose  at  that  time  in  one  word, 
to  frame  my  life,  in  this  respect,  on  what  I 
understood  to  be  the  character  and  views  of 
Dr.  Franklin. 

A  year  afterwards,  a  revival  of  religion  com- 
menced in  the  college  of  which  I  was  then  a 
member,  and  affected  particularly  the  class 
with  which  I  was  connected.  I  resolved  to 
carry  out  at  this  time,  and  in  reference  to 
the  existing  religious  movement,  the  resolution 
which  I  had  previously  formed.  I  determined 
to  say  nothing  agahist  the  revival,  but  to  stand 
aloof  from  it,  and  in  no  respect  to  yield  to  its 
influence.     I  supposed  that  I  was  sufficiently 


Life  at   Tltree-Score.  63 

guarded  in  reference  to  this,  and  that  no  appeal 
which  could  be  made  to  me  would  affect  me. 
A  classmate,  recently  converted,  stated  to  me 
in  simple  words,  and  with  no  appeal  to  me  per- 
sonally, his  own  feelings  on  the  subject  of  reli- 
gion, described  the  change  which  had  occurred 
in  his  mind,  and  left  me.  His  words  went  to 
my  heart  -,  led  me  to  reflect  on  my  own  condi- 
tion, and  were  the  means,  under  God,  of  that 
great  change  which  has  so  materially  affected 
all  my  plans  in  this  life,  and  which  I  antici- 
pate and  hope  will  affect  my  condition  forever. 
I  advert  to  this  here,  not  only  because  it 
was  an  important  event  in  my  own  life,  but 
because  it  has  taught  me  some  great  truths  in 
regard  to  religion.  My  own  experience  thus 
referred  to  has  shown  me  that  conversion  from 
infidelity  to  Christianity,  so  as  to  secure  an 
intellectual  assent  to  it  as  a  system,  is  not 
necessarily  conversion  to  true  religion  ;  that  a 
man  may  be  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the 
Bible,  and  pause  there,  making  no  progress 
ever  afterwards ;  that  much  more  than  such  a 
conviction  is  necessary  to  save  the  soul ;  and 


64  Life  at  Three-Score. 

that  tliey  who  yield  the  understanding  to  God 
and  to  his  truth,  and  withhold  the  heart  from 
the  claims  of  the  gospel,  as  I  had  done,  are  not 
safe  in  regard  to  another  world.  Had  I  paused 
there,  as  I  purposed  to  do,  my  whole  course  in 
this  world  would  have  been  different;  my  ever- 
lasting condition  in  another  world,  I  cannot 
but  believe,  would  have  been  essentially  unlike 
what  I  trust  now  that  it  will  be.  I  have 
always,  therefore,  looked  with  deep  interest  and 
concern  on  that  class  of  men,  so  numerous  and 
so  respectable,  who  yield  an  intellectual  assent 
to  the  Christian  religion,  and  who  go  no  far- 
ther ;  who  admit  that  the  Bible  is  from  God, 
but  who  form  a  purpose,  secret  or  avowed,  that 
it  shall  have  no  ascendency  over  the  heart. 
My  own  experience  has  taught  me  that  their 
feet  stand  on  slippery  rocks;  and,  urged  by  that 
experience,  and  by  the  recollection  of  my  own 
danger,  it  has  been  one  great  aim  of  my  minis- 
try to  lead  that  class  of  men  to  a  better  foun- 
dation of  hope. 

This  change  in  my  views  and  feelings  oc- 
curred nearly  forty  years  ago.     It  led  to  an 


Life  at  Three-Scare.  65 

entire  change  in  my  plans  of  life,  and  in  my 
choice  of  a  profession.  The  time  of  my  con- 
version to  Christj  if  I  was  truly  converted,  and 
of  my  change  in  my  plans  of  life,  was  simulta- 
neous. I  had  intended  to  enter  the  legal  pro- 
fession, and  had  looked  forward  to  it  with  the 
ardour  of  an  ambitious  mind,  nor  have  I  ever 
ceased  to  feel  a  deep  personal  interest  in  it. 
As  I  view  the  matter  now,  it  would  be  to  me 
among  the  most  attractive  callings  of  life,  and 
would  be  next  in  my  choice  to  the  one  in 
which  I  have  spent  my  days.  But  the  ques- 
tion, in  my  case,  between  the  law  and  the 
ministry,  seemed  to  me  to  be  one  involving  no 
doubt  and  admitting  of  no  hesitation. 

I  have  never  had  occasion  to  regret  the 
change.  To  that  change  alike  in  regard  to 
my  feelings,  and  to  my  purposes  in  life,  I  now 
look  back  with  more  satisfaction  than  to  any 
other  change  which  has  occurred,  or  to  any 
other  purpose  which  I  have  formed.  If  I  were 
to  live  my  life  over  again,  I  should  desire  that 
the  same  change  should  occur  again,  as  most 
closely  identified  with  my  happiness  and  my 


66  Life  at  Three^Score. 

usefulness  in  this  world,  and  with  my  hopes  in 
the  future  life. 

I  am  now  more  firmly,  and  I  trust  more  in- 
telligently, impressed  with  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  with  the  belief  that  the  Bible  is 
a  revelation  from  God,  than  I  was  when  that 
change  occurred.  That  I  saw  difficulties  in  the 
scheme  of  Christianity,  and  in  the  Bible,  then ; 
that  I  have  seen  them  since ;  that  I  see  them 
now,  I  do  not  deny;  nor  do  I  expect  to  reach 
a  position  in  this  world  where  objections  could 
not  be  suggested  on  the  whole  subject  of  reli- 
gion which  I  should  not  be  able  to  solve.  But 
I  have  spent  more  than  thirty  years  in  a  close 
study  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  no  small 
part  of  my  inquiries  has  had  reference  to  the 
difficulties  which  were  suggested  to  my  mind 
by  my  early  skepticism,  and  to  those  which  to 
a  mind  naturally  inclined  to  unbelief  have  been 
suggested  since.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  all 
those  difficulties  have  been  removed.  But  I 
have  found  that,  on  a  close  examination,  not  a 
few  of  those  which  at  first  perplexed  me  have 
silently  disappeared ;  that  a  large  part  of  those 


Life  at   Three- Score.  67 

which  have  been  since  suggested  have  vanished 
also ;  and  that,  in  the  mean  time,  the  evidences 
of  the  truth  of  the  Bible  have,  in  my  appre- 
hension, become  stronger  and  stronger.  Thus 
a  large  part  of  the  difficulties  which  once  per- 
plexed me  have  vanished  entirely;  a  portion 
of  them  have  taken  their  place  by  the  side  of 
undisputed  facts  actually  existing  in  the  world, 
in  reference  to  which  there  are  the  same  diffi- 
cult questions  to  be  answered  as  in  regard  to 
the  difficulties  in  the  Bible,  and  which  do  not 
pertain,  therefore,  peculiarly  to  revelation,  and 
about  which,  as  a  believer  in  revelation,  I  give 
myself  no  special  perplexity  or  trouble.  My 
experience  in  the  matter  has  led  me  to  hope 
and  believe  that  a  longer  and  more  patient 
study  would  in  a  similar  manner  remove  all 
the  difficulties  which  I  now  see  in  the  Christian 
system,  and  make  what  now  appears  to  be  in- 
consistent harmonious,  and  what  is  now  dark 
clear.  I  come,  therefore,  in  this  respect,  with 
the  language  of  encouragement  to  those  who 
are  now  just  entering  on  their  Christian  way, 
and  who  find  their  minds  poisoned  by  skep- 


68  L}fe  at  Three- ^core. 

ticism,  and  their  course  impeded  by  difficulties. 
Time,  patience,  study,  reflection,  prayer,  sug- 
gestions from  within  and  from  without,  accom- 
panied by  the  influences  of  the  Divine  Spirit, 
will  remove  most  of  those  difficulties,  and  will 
leave  at  last  only  those  which  belong,  not  pe- 
culiarly to  the  Bible,  but  to  the  mysterious 
order  of  things  around  us;  to  those  which  lie 
wholly  beyond  the  reach  of  our  present  powers, 
and  which  must  be  left  for  solution  to  an  eter- 
nal world.  It  should  never  be  forgotten  that 
these  great  subjects  are  to  engross  our  thoughts 
forever,  and  that  it  was  needful  that  the  uni- 
verse should  be  so  made  as  to  give  eternal  occu- 
pation to  the  intellect  and  the  heart.  We  are 
in  the  very  infancy  of  our  being  now,  and  it 
would  make  the  heaven  before  us  a  blank  if 
there  were  no  subjects  demanding  our  thoughts, 
and  fitted  to  give  occupation  to  mind,  which 
we  could  not  grasp  and  explain  now.  I  have 
never  intended  to  turn  away  from  any  difficulty 
w^hich  has  come  in  my  path  on  the  subject  of 
religion;  I  have  never  designed  to  evade  an 
objection,  come  from  what  quarter  it  might;  I 


Life  at  Three-Score.  69 

have  never  refused  as  a  personal  matter  to 
listen  to  any  suggestion  which  would  seem  to 
militate  against  the  truth  of  religion,  and  to 
examine  it.  I  can  have  no  object  in  being  de- 
ceived, or  in  deceiving  others ;  I  have  as  much 
personal  interest  as  any  other  man  can  have  in 
the  question  whether  Christianity  is  true  or 
false.  I  say  now,  therefore,  that  I  am  more 
firmly  and  more  intelligently  convinced  of  the 
truth  of  the  Bible  than  I  was  at  twenty-one 
years  of  age;  that  the  difficulties  which  I  then 
saw  have  been  silently  and  gradually  melting 
away;  and  that  I  now  perceive  scarcely  any 
which  I  do  not  see  existing  with  equal  force 
in  the  analogy  of  nature,  or  which  are  not  such 
as  lie  beyond  the  powers  of  man  as  yet  de- 
veloped, and  which  properly  pertain  to  another 
world. 

The  language  of  the  late  Professor  Stuart, 
of  Andover,  well  describes  my  own  experience 
on  this  subject : — "  In  the  early  part  of  my 
Biblical  studies,  some  thirty  to  thirty-five 
years  ago,"  says  he,  "  when  I  first  began  the 
critical  investigation  of  the  Scriptures,  doubts 


70  Ufe  at  Three-Score. 

and  difficulties  started  up  on  every  side,  like 
the  armed  men  whom  Cadmus  is  fabled  to 
have  raised  up.  Time,  patience,  continued 
study,  a  better  acquaintance  with  the  original 
scriptural  languages,  and  the  countries  where 
the  sacred  books  were  written,  have  scattered 
to  the  winds  nearly  all  those  doubts.  I  meet, 
indeed,"  says  he,  "  with  difficulties  still,  which 
I  cannot  solve  at  once ;  with  some  where  even 
repeated  effiDrts  have  not  solved  them.  But  I 
quiet  myself  by  calling  to  mind  that  hosts  of 
other  difficulties,  once  apparently  to  me  as 
formidable  as  these,  have  been  removed,  and 
have  disappeared  from  the  circle  of  my  trou- 
bled vision.  Why  may  I  not  hope,  then,  as 
to  the  difficulties  that  remain  ?"'^' 

I  now  declare  to  you  solemnly,  in  this  public 
manner,  that  I  have  no  hope  of  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  or  of  future  happiness,  ex- 
cept that  which  is  found  in  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  I  have  seen  no  evidence — I  now  see 
none — of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  as  de- 
rived from  human  reasoning  which  would  be 

*  Canon  of  the  Old  Testament,  p.  18. 


Life  at  TlireeScore.  71 

satisfactory  to  my  mind ;  and  my  belief  that 
the  soul  will  exist  forever  is  founded  on  the 
fact  that  "  life  and  immortality  are  brought  to 
light  through  the  gospel."  The  reasoning  of 
Plato  on  the  subject,  in  the  Phaedo,  has  done 
nothing  to  convince  me  on  that  point;  nor 
have  I  met  with  any  reasoning,  apart  from 
the  statements  of  the  Bible,  which  would  con- 
vince me,  or  which  would  give  support  and 
consolation  to  my  anxious  mind  when  I  think 
on  this  great  subject.  And,  in  the  same  man- 
ner, I  declare  to  you  that  I  have  no  hope  of 
heaven  except  that  which  is  derived  from 
what  the  Saviour  has  done  for  lost  sinners, — a 
hope  founded  solely  on  his  atonement;  his 
merit ;  his  intercession.  I  can  adopt  now,  as 
expressing  the  whole  of  my  belief  and  my 
hope,  the  sentiment  which  my  venerable  pre- 
ceptor, Dr.  Alexander,  is  understood  to  have 
expressed  in  his  last  moments,  as  constituting 
the  "whole  of  his  theology :"—"  This  is  a 
faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation, 
that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save 
sinners;"   and  though  I  fear  that  in  death  I 


72  lAfe  at  Three-Score. 

should  be  compelled,  much  more  than  he 
needed  to  do,  to  mingle  with  this  expression 
of  my  faith  the  language  which  our  great 
statesman*  is  said  to  have  uttered  in  his 
dying  moments,  "Lord,  I  believe,  help  thou 
mine  unbelief,"  yet  still  this  is  my  faith,  and 
this  is  my  hope.  I  have  no  other.  I  desire 
no  other. 

I  have  thus  submitted  to  you  what  I  wished 
to  express  on  an  occasion  that  is  to  me  of  so 
much  interest.  I  could  turn  the  table — I 
could  give  you  the  obverse  of  this — I  could 
recount  errors  and  short-comings  and  imper- 
fections in  my  life,  of  which  I  am  now  deeply 
conscious,  and  which  will  be  to  me  a  source  of 
regret  to  the  end  of  my  days ;  but  these  do 
not  pertain  to  an  occasion  like  this.  They 
belong  to  the  "closet," — the  place  where  a 
man  is  alone  with  God,  and  where  he  seeks 
for  pardon  through  the  blood  of  the  atonement. 

I  enter  now  on  what  I  must  regard  as  the 
last  stage  of  my  existence  on  earth.     I  have 

*  Daniel  Webster. 


Life  at   Tltree'Score.  73 

reached  the  summit  of  hfe.  I  cannot  expect 
or  hope  to  rise  higher.  I  have  come  to  the 
top  of  the  hill,  and  I  have  found  there,  as 
one  sometimes  does  when  he  ascends  a  moun- 
tain, a  httle  spot  which  seems  to  me  to  be 
level  ground — a  small  area  of  table-land — a 
plateau — that  spreads  out  a  little  distance 
around  me.  If  I  am  permitted  to  walk  for  a 
few  years  on  that  plateau — that  table-land — 
that  level  spot — it  is  all  that  I  can  now  hope 
for.  I  can  look  for  no  greater  degree  of  vigour 
of  body  or  of  mind ;  for  no  greater  ability  to 
labour.  That  little  spot  of  level  ground  which 
I  seem  to  have  found  on  the  summit,  spreads 
out  before  me  with  much  that  is  inviting.  I 
cannot  deny  that  I  would,  on  many  accounts, 
love  to  linger  there,  and  extend  my  walk 
further  than  I  can  reasonably  hope  that  I 
shall  be  permitted  to  do.  But  I  desire  not  to 
forget  that  though  this  little  spot  seems  to  me 
to  be  level,  yet  if  I  continue  to  walk  over  it 
for  a  little  time  I  must  find  it  soon  begin  to 
slope  in  the  other  direction,  or  that  I  may 
soon  come  to  a  precipice  down  which  I  shall 


7 


74  Life  at  Three-Score. 

suddenly  flill  to  rise  no  more.  At  all  events, 
I  know  that  I  shall — that  I  must — soon  come 
to  a  place  where  it  will  begin  to  descend ;  nor 
would  I  forget  that  the  descent  must  be  much 
more  steep  than  the  rise  has  been,  and  that 
the  hill  which  has  been  of  so  easy  a  grade  on 
the  one  side  may  be  on  the  other  a  most  steep 
declivity,  or  that  from  the  top  of  the  hill 
which  it  has  required  so  many  years  to  climb, 
the  descent  to  the  bottom  may  occur  in  a 
moment. 

Permit  me  to  say  that  I  am,  at  this  period  of 
my  life,  hojyeful  in  regard  to  the  world,  to  truth, 
to  religion,  to  liberty,  to  the  advancement  of 
the  race.  The  world  is  growing  better;  not 
worse.  It  is  better  now  than  it  was  sixty  years 
ago;  it  is  becoming  better  every  year,  every 
month,  every  day.  In  its  progress  society 
takes  hold  of  all  that  is  valuable,  or  that  con- 
stitutes real  improvement,  and  will  not  let  it 
die.  That  which  is  worthless  is  superseded  by 
that  which  is  useful ;  that  which  is  injurious 
and  wrong  is  drojDped  by  the  way;  that  which 
goes  permanently  into  the  good  order  of  the 


Life  at  Three- Score.  75 

world  alone  is  retained.  There  is  more  love 
of  truth  than  there  was  sixty  years  ago;  there 
is  more  science ;  there  are  more  of  the  comforts 
of  life;  there  is  more  freedom;  there  is  more 
religion.  There  will  be  more  in  the  next  age 
than  there  is  now;  and  so  on  to  the  end  of 
time.  Christianity  never  had  so  firm  a  hold 
on  the  intelligent  faith  of  mankind  as  it  has 
now.  It  will  have  a  firmer  hold  on  the  next 
age,  and  will  extend  its  triumphs  until  the 
world — the  whole  world — shall  be  converted 
to  the  Saviour.  Old  men  often  feel  that  the 
world  is  growing  worse.  I  have  not  that  feel- 
ing now;  by  the  grace  of  God,  I  shall  never 
have  it.  I  intend  to  hold  on  to  the  conviction 
which  I  now  have  at  this  mature  period  of  my 
life,  that  the  world  is  becoming  better;  I  design 
to  cherish  this  conviction  when  I  die.  I  do 
not  despond  or  despair  in  regard  to  men ;  to  the 
church;  to  my  country;  to  the  cause  of  hu- 
manity; to  the  cause  of  freedom.  I  believe 
that  the  whole  world  will  be  converted  to  truth 
and  righteousness;  and  if  I  should  be  spared  to 
that  period  when  I  should  be  willing  to  fill  up 


76  Life  at  Three-Score. 

that  part  of  the  text  which  I  have  omitted 
now,  and  to  speak  of  myself  as  ''old  and  gray- 
lieaded,''  I  intend  that  there  shall  be  at  least 
one  aged  man  who  will  take  a  cheerful  and 
hopeful  view  of  the  world  as  he  leaves  it. 
Happy  will  he  be  who  shall  live  in  those  times 
that  are  coming  upon  the  world,  and  who  shall 
see  the  full  development  of  the  things  now 
sj^ringing  up  on  the  earth  which  tend  to  the 
recovery  and  redemption  of  the  race !  It  is 
much  to  have  lived  sixty  years  in  a  period  of 
the  world  like  that  which  is  now  past ;  it  will 
be  a  much  greater  thing  to  live  in  those  brighter 
and  happier  years  which  are  soon  to  follow. 
With  my  views  of  heaven,  I  can  indeed  envy — 
even  if  envy  were  ever  proper — no  one  who  is 
to  remain  on  the  earth ;  and  yet  there  are  scenes 
to  occur  here  below  which  one  who  cherishes 
such  views  as  I  do,  and  who  is  about  to  leave 
the  world  even  with  the  hope  of  heaven,  could 
not  but  desire  to  witness.  I  would  be  glad  if 
these  remarks  might  show  you  that  as  men 
advance  in  life  it  is  not  necessary,  though  it  is 
so  common,  to  feel  that  the  world  is  becoming 


Life  at  Three^Score.  'J'J 

worse ;  and  that  a  man  who  is  soon  to  leave  the 
earth  himself  may  take  such  a  view  of  human 
aftliirs  as  to  enable  him  to  utter  a  cheering 
word  to  those  who  are  entering  on  the  struggles 
of  life,  and  show  them  that  there  is  much  for 
the  church  to  hope  for,  much  to  live  and 
labour  for. 

Finally.  I  am  personally  liopeftd  in  regard 
to  the  future  world.  I  cherish  the  hope  that  I 
may  reach  heaven;  and  that,  having  been  so 
long  a  professor  of  religion,  I  may  be  "kept 
from  falling,"  and  be  preserved  unto  the  eternal 
kingdom  of  the  Kedeemer.  On  this  point,  per- 
taining so  much  to  a  man's  private  feelings, 
and  to  his  personal  relations  to  God,  it  is  not 
proper  that  I  should  in  a  public  manner  say 
more  than  this.  But  I  know  how  a  man  ouijlit 
to  feel  who  has  reached  the  sixtieth  year  of  his 
life ;  I  know  how  a  Christian  minister  ought  to 
preach, — what  such  a  man  should  live  for;  what 
he  should  aim  to  do;  what  spirit  he  should  be 
of.  I  know  how  a  man  ouglit  to  live  who  feels 
that  he  is  rapidly  approaching  heaven — how 
he  ought  to  labour;  to  pray;  to  wait;  to  hope; 


78  Life  at   Three-Score. 

to  be  patient;  how  he  ought  to  be  found  at  the 
post  of  duty,  and  to  gird  himself  for  the  last 
conflict.  I  shall  accomplish  what  I  ought  to 
accomplish;  shall  live  as  I  ought  to  live;  shall 
be  faithful  as  a  pastor  as  I  ought  to  be  faithful; 
shall  preach  as  I  ought  to  preach ;  and  shall 
die  with  the  bright  anticipations  which  a  Chris- 
tian man  ought  to  possess,  and  which  I  most 
earnestly  desire  maj'  be  mine  when  I  die,  very 
much  as  I  am  sustained  by  your  prayers.  Is 
it  improper,  then,  to  ask  your  23rayers,  that  "  1 
may  finish  my  course  with  joy,  and  the  minis- 
try which  I  have  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
to  testify  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God !" 


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From  Mr.  Barnes's  Dedication  to  Judge  Denio. 
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can  come  only  of  the  grace  of  God  when  superadded  to  the  most  exquisite  human 
culture,  and  are  the  same  as  we  observe  in  Mr.  Ilobart  Seymour,  in  his  Evenings  with 
the  polished  Jesuit  in  Rome,  and  in  his  Mornings  with  the  rude  partisan  in  Ireland, 
— a  union  of  humility,  courtesy,  and  power." — Bibliotlipca  Sacra,  April,  1858. 

"  Almost  indispensable  to  the  scholar  as  well  as  the  theologian." — Episcopal  Re- 
corder. 

''  No  one  can  read  these  sermons  intelligently  without  being  sensible  that  he  is  in 
contact  with  a  mind  of  the  rarest  endowments  and  a  heart  deeply  alive  to  spiritual 
and  eternal  realities." — Puritan  Recorder. 

"  Such  exliibitions  of  pulpit  eloquence  will  prove  acceptable  to  the  Christian  public 
generally,  and  will  serve  as  an  excellent  model,  in  most  respects,  for  young  ministers." 
— The  Presbyterian. 

"  Eloquent  without  pretence,  rhetorical  without  being  florid,  and  glowing  with  the 
zeal,  the  piety,  the  spirituality,  of  the  gospel." — N.  Y.  Observer. 

"Poet,  orator,  metaphysician,  theologian." — Dublin  Universiti/  Magazine. 

"  They  are  very  able  sermons, — very  far  superior  to  any  thing  we  have  received  from 
the  British  pulpit  in  these  latter  days." — Presbyterian  Herald. 

Lectures  on  the  History  of  Ancient  Philosophy. 

By  William  Archer  Butler,  M.A.,  late  Professor  of  Moral  Philo- 
sophy in  the  University  of  Dublin.  Edited  from  the  author's  MSS., 
with  Notes,  by  Wm.  Hepwortii  Thompson,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Trinity 
College,  and  Regius  Professor  of  Greek  in  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge,    In  2  vols,  crown  8vo.     Cloth,  $3. 

The  publishers  regard  this  work  as  one  of  the  most  valuable  additions  to  intellectual 
science  which  have  been  made  for  many  years.  They  believe  that  in  no  work  in  the 
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metaphysical  acuteness,  the  profound  erudition,  and  the  conscientiousness  of  the 
author,  render  him  one  of  the  safest  of  guides  to  the  student  of  Ancient  Philosophy. 
"What  is  Mental  Philosophy ?  What  is  the  history  of  its  evolution?  What  is  the 
secret  of  that  wondrous  hold  which  the  great  masters  of  antiquity  have  had  upon  the 
foremost  thinkers  of  so  many  generations  of  men?"  are  questions  which  the  author 
has  handled  with  a  skill,  a  judgment,  and  a  range  of  knowledge  which  leave  the  in- 
quisitive reader  but  little  to  desire.  While  it  includes  nearly  all  that  is  valuable  in 
the  treatises  of  other  writers,  the  publishers  feel  authorized,  in  view  of  the  high  and 
emphatic  endorsement  it  has  received  from  some  of  the  most  eminent  thinkers,  to 
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book  on  the  same  subject. 

"  For  these  Lectures  we  cannot  express  our  admiration  in  too  ardent  terms.  They 
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their  theme.  *  *  *  No  discussion  of  the  system  of  Plato  can  compare  with  his  for  the 
union  of  exact  knowledge  and  clear  conceptions  of  a  glowing  yet  subdued  eloquence, 
and  an  affectionate  and  almost  personal  regard  for  the  Divine  Philosopher."— jNew 
Englander. 

"  A  work  of  the  greatest  value,  from  one  of  the  greatest  minds  of  the  age.  The 
author  was  in  the  best  and  largest  sense  a  Christian  Philosopher."— ^anm?-  oftfie  Cross. 

3 


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